The Ripple Effect
by Spring Daisy
Summary: When Draco Malfoy died at 24, he wasn't sure where he would end up. He didn't know if his sins would result in him being dragged down to hell, remanded to purgatory, or if his reparations since the war granted him entrance to heaven. He definitely didn't expect to be reborn as a baby in a world where ninjas existed and magic was a figment of people's imagination. NarutoxHPcrossover
1. Disturbing Realities

Summary: When Draco Malfoy died at the age of 24, he was not sure where he would end up. He did not know if his sins would result in him being dragged down to the fiery depths of hell, remanded to eternal purgatory, or if his reparations since the war granted him entrance to pearly white gates of paradise. What he definitely did not expect was to be reincarnated as a baby in a world where ninjas existed and magic was considered a figment of imagination.

A/N: This is my first attempt at fanfiction. I've read a few stories about people being reborn into the Naruto world and thought it would be interesting to see how Draco dealt with it, so I decided to give it a shot.

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 **Chapter 1: Disturbing Realities**

Draco jolted awake to immense pain wracking his entire body. As he became more aware of his surroundings, Draco could hear the sound of a woman's anguished screams and rapid fire talking in what sounded like a foreign language. The last thing he could recall was Luna turning towards him in slow motion, her face twisting in desperation as she attempted to prevent his death and then her eyes darkening as she realized that she would be too late to save him.

As the pain began to lessen, Draco quickly evaluated his situation. Luna, being the amazing witch that she was, must have somehow someway succeeded in saving him. As he realized that he was indeed alive, elation surged through him and the remaining pain became inconsequential.

What was a little pain when he has survived with his life intact? As much as he was looking forward to seeing his godfather, grandfather, and Vincent again, he would rather to spend as much time with his living friends and family as possible.

As Draco started to count his blessings, someone picked him up and began wiping him down. Noting that something felt off but eager to dismiss that in light of his survival, Draco opened his eyes. His stomach twisted and his elation started to dissipate. Oh Merlin. Something was wrong with his vision.

Instead of the perfect eyesight he had been blessed with, the world was a disorienting mass of distorted colors and out-of-focus figures. Was karma choosing this moment to bite him in the ass for all the years of teasing Potter for being blinder than a bat? If or when he fully recovered from this predicament, Draco vowed to not tease the visually impaired boy wonder at least the next few times he saw him.

Draco opened his mouth in an attempt to notify whoever was caring for him of his vision dilemma only to realize that something was blocking his air passage. His remaining elation gave way to panic and he froze. Only to be startled out of his panic by harsh smacks to his back and the feeling of fluid flying out of his mouth freeing the obstruction to his airways.

Startled by the pain and the sound of a baby crying, Draco prepared to ask to be moved to a different ward only to realize that HE was the baby that was crying. For the second time since waking up, Draco froze. He could vaguely feel himself being placed in someone's soft arms but his mind was a whirling mess of jumbled thoughts. _Did I just witness my own birth? If I was reborn, why do I remember- How is this possible? Why did-_ unable to cope with the reality of being a baby and unwilling to contemplate what it meant for his chances of seeing his loved ones again, Draco decided to ignore his troubling thoughts for the time being and allowed the soft comfort being offered by this stranger, _his new mother_ his mind unhelpfully supplies, to lull him to an uneasy sleep.

As Draco started to drift awake, the texture of his bed felt off. Instead of the soft plush pillow top mattress and smooth silk of his bed sheets, the sheets felt rougher and the mattress definitely felt firmer. Had he gotten drunk last night? He started to wonder where he was when the previous day's events flashed through his mind in rapid succession. He snapped his eyes open desperately hoping beyond hope that it was all an unpleasant nightmare and that he would see the comforting charcoal gray walls of his bedroom as the gentle morning light from the window streamed onto his bed only to see what appear to be bars lining the side of a wooden crib in a small bedroom.

Despite wanting to deny the truth of what has occurred, Draco started to feel the stirrings of hunger making him realize a new dilemma. While thankfully he didn't remember being breastfed the first time around, he was now an adult trapped in an infant's body. He definitely did not want to see his new mother's breasts, let alone be breastfed but he couldn't see any possible way of avoiding it.

He was an equal opportunity lover in what was now his past life but Draco didn't know if he would ever be able to look at a pair of breasts the same way after being breastfed and he rather liked breasts. The last rays of light from the sun disappeared and the moonlight began to cast a gentle glow over his mattress before Draco broke down, gave into the inevitable, and wailed loud cries of hunger calling his new mother to his side.

An hour after giving in, Draco was still attempting to block out what was arguably the one of most traumatizing ten minutes of his entire life, one that unfortunately he would be unable to escape until he was old enough to eat baby food.

Worse than the time he had walked in on Pansy and Millicent getting revenge on Theodore. He had taken one look at the elegantly raised eyebrow on Pansy's face, the vindictive parody of a grin on Millicent's face, and the situation Theodore was in before sharply turning on his heel and leaving as fast as he could without seeming like he was fleeing. There were times one stuck up for his dorm mates and other times when faced by vengeful females that it was every man for himself.

Pushing that incident out of his mind, Draco focused on his current dilemma. After being breastfed, he now knew that he would definitely NOT be able to look at breasts the same way. Hopefully by the time he was old enough to engage in such activities, he would either be successful in blocking out these traumatizing events or make his peace with forgoing women altogether. As he lay there contemplating how to best avoid lifelong trauma until he was old enough to eat baby food, he felt food coma slowly lulling him back to sleep and eager to avoid thinking too hard about his current situation, he didn't fight it.

Over the next several months, Draco vacillated between restless boredom stemming from confined to his wooden crib and wallowing in depression when he thought of his old life. Although his vision improved to once again be the perfect eyesight he had been blessed with in his previous life, there was only so many times one can stare at the same four walls without being bored out of one's mind.

As a baby and therefore having limited mobility and limited ways to pass the time, Draco couldn't help but think about his family and friends he had unwillingly left behind. The happy memories he had of his loved ones were often a double edged sword. While they helped to pass the time, they also simultaneously reminded him of all that he had lost.

The fact he would never see his mother's soft smile or his father's amused smirk again left a gaping hole in his heart. Just thinking about them felt like a werewolf was slowly raking his claws through his heart and tearing it into a billion pieces. While he loved both of his parents dearly, he missed his mother the most. Despite what people thought about his mother, Narcissa Malfoy was a loving and warm mother who had always been supportive of him no matter what. He missed basking in the warm sunlight on their favorite lounge chairs in the manor's rose garden, playing chess in the manor's library together on late nights when sleep eluded them both, and just spending time with her.

His new parents seemed loving and while they were technically his parents at the same time they weren't and it felt like a betrayal to his real parents to bond with these kind strangers. Nonetheless, Draco was unable to avoid forming a grudging affection for his new parents. They fed him, clothed him, and showered him with affection. Knowing how difficult newborn care could be from the few friends of his that had already married and began popping out children, Draco tried his best to be a reasonable baby. He cried when he needed food, to be changed, but other than that he tried not to deprive his new parents of sleep.

Sometimes, he got overwhelmed by thoughts of the past and the need for any kind of comfort surpassed the need for solitude to grieve. Those moments where he wept uncontrollably, his new mother softly sang lullabies as she rocked him or his new father gently rubbed his back as he bounced him until his crying subsided. Caring for an infant wasn't the easiest task especially for an infant that was wailing his lungs off.

It was during those moments where Draco was overwhelmed by the depression that had haunted him since his rebirth and his new parents comforted him that affection for them really flourished. It was hard not to form affection for people who earnestly tried to care for you as best as they could.

In between his need for solitude and bouts of hysteria during the first months of his infancy, one thing that he was able to ascertain was that he had been born into a Japanese muggle household. Try as he might, he was unable to locate any traces of any magical items or creatures. He was able to recognize the language and also the style of clothing his new parents were fond of wearing as Japanese. His parents were most certainly non-magical people but Draco still felt magic coursing through his veins.

He was no longer prejudiced towards non-magical people. However, he was glad that he hasn't lost his magic. After living with it so long, it had become an intrinsic part of him. Losing it would've been a deep blow. One he's not sure that he could have recovered from on top of losing everything and everyone else. Although his magic felt slightly different in this new body, it was still there and that was better than nothing.

At first, seeing the archaic style of clothing his parents and their friends wear worried Draco. He worried that he had somehow been born far in the past. Historically speaking, non-magical people reacted with extreme prejudice and violence towards those with magic. While some people might have said that he deserved it after the way he had treated muggleborns growing up, he had turned a new leaf since the war.

Luckily, he was able to recognize some of the modern muggle appliances that his parents had in their home so he was able to put some of his worries to rest. He still feared his parents' possible to reaction to his magic but he did not have fears of being lynched or burned at the stake. Besides worst come to worse, the Japanese ministry was bound to have laws in place to protect muggleborns from their wayward parents.

After months of wallowing, he now had something to look forward to. In around ten years, he will be able to learn to use magic again. Perhaps he would even be able to attend Hogwarts instead of whichever magical academy existed in Japan. The thought of being able to go to Hogwarts again helped soothe some of his anguish.

Speaking of Japan, Draco wasn't quite sure what area of Japan his new family resided in as he had spent most of the time since his birth indoors. He had been born sometime in the wintertime and wherever they lived was quite cold. His parents had carried him outdoors briefly for short walks but all he saw during these walks was snow in all directions. Even if he had seen whichever city was closest to them, he was unfamiliar with Japanese geography so he probably would not have been able to identify it by looks alone. Figuring that discovering where he was could come later, when he was able to read a map, Draco focused on trying to crawl and talk.

Keeping track of time as a baby was surprisingly difficult as the days started to mesh into one another. Each day he's fed, bathed, and played with. There were not any significant events that helped differentiate the different days. He was not well versed in a baby's developmental timeline so measuring time by his progress on crawling and talking was futile. The only measure for keeping track of the passing time Draco had was the changing seasons. He was born sometime during the winter. As it was summer now, it had been somewhere between six to nine months since his birth.

As summer changed to autumn, Draco was able to crawl proficiently. When he spoke, it started to sound closer to actual language than incomprehensible gibberish. Being able to crawl around definitely eased the boredom somewhat.

While he was still cooped indoors, he was able to explore his new home which was infinitely better than staring at the same four walls of his bedroom. He can't wait to start walking but his muscles had not developed enough for him to stand on his own two feet yet. He was getting close but he was not quite there yet.

One brisk winter day, his mother set him down in the living room after feeding him and he paused when he saw his father sitting in the living room playing a board game with his mother's best friend, Hikari. Usually by the time his mother set him down in the living room, his father had left to work. Hikari, Takeru, his parents' other friends whose names he didn't know, and his father also were all wearing nicer than usual clothes.

Upon exploring the living room, Draco found a pile of presents. Between the nicer clothes, the presents, and the rough estimation of how much time has passed, Draco was elated to realize that it must be his birthday. Inching closer to his pile of shiny wrapped presents, he was thwarted by his father chuckling and picking him up.

"Maa, mi-chan it isn't time for that yet," his father gently tapped Draco's nose as Draco grumbled in baby gibberish.

"So, Yoshirou has mi-chan said her first word yet? She seems pretty close to talking." Hikari asked as she tickled Draco. "She's always trailing after Tonomi, I bet you anything that her first word is going to be Kaa-chan. She's such a mama's girl."

His father's response to Hikari's teasing and all other noises faded to the background as Hikari's words she, her, and girl reverberated in Draco's head. He had a pretty good grasp of simple Japanese language and unless he had mixed up the feminine pronouns and the word girl… Hikari just referred to her as a female three to four times.

His parents had always referred to him as misaki-chan or mi-chan but he had assumed that it was a cutesy way of referring to a baby. His mind whirled as he thought back over the past year trying to find any indication that he was a male baby.

His parents always dressed him in gender neutral colors, so thinking about past outfits was no help. He had always zoned out during bath time because even though he was physically a baby, mentally he was adult. The thought of someone bathing him was unsettling. The sight of himself as a baby let alone as a naked baby was bound to disturb him so he had avoided looking in the mirror pre and post bath time.

He had not checked whether or not he was male because he had just assumed that he had been reborn as a male baby. Checking his memory thoroughly, Draco came to the conclusion that there was no definitive answer. Baby or not, he was not about to grope himself in the middle of a party nor drop his trousers even if he was able to get his onesie open. Besides with the dexterity he currently possessed… yeah that onesie wasn't going to be unbuttoned anytime soon.

Draco was jarred from his disturbing thoughts when he felt himself being placed in a high chair as his parents and their friends sang what Draco was assuming was some rendition of happy birthday. The gender quandary still unsettling his mind, he opened his mouth to cry so Tonomi would bring him back to his room when the subtle aroma of vanilla and sugar hit his nose.

Looking down, Draco spotted a small cake placed directly in front of him. Seeing the larger cake in the center of the table, Draco's eyes lit up with glee when he realized this small piece of baked amazingness was all for him.

Slowly inching his hand towards the delicious looking cake in front of him, his mouth watered in anticipation as he proceeded to grab and bring a handful cake towards his mouth. Stuffing the cake into his mouth, it was as if his taste buds were exploding from the delicious-ness that was cake. After a year of nothing but breast milk, his first piece of real food tasted like a slice of heaven.

As Draco devoured the cake, Hikari teased, "Did you see Misaki-chan's eyes after she had her first bite of cake? So cute! She definitely inherited your sweet tooth Tonomi."

"After having cake good luck trying to get her to eat and not fling baby food." Takeru commented grinning from ear to ear as the rest of the party laughed and Draco's parents groaned in unison at the thought.

Tonomi wiped Draco's face clean of the remnants of his birthday cake and set him down on the floor to wander as she cut slices of cake for everyone else. Draco was about to make a beeline for his presents but decided that the gender issue was more pressing. He tapped lightly on Tonomi's leg to get her attention. When that and several more taps failed to get her attention, Draco did the one thing that he knew would grab her attention and squeaked out, "Kaa! Kaa! Kaa-chan!"

Hearing Draco's first words elicited an excited squeal from Tonomi and a defeated sigh from Yoshirou as Tonomi scooped Draco in her arms and peppered his face with kisses. Hikari couldn't control her laughter as Takeru patted Yoshirou's shoulder consolingly and said, "Good thing you didn't take Hikari's bet, huh."

Yoshirou's face brightened from that and the realization that while tou-chan wasn't Misaki's first word there's no reason it couldn't be the second word.

Trying to cajole Misaki into saying tou-chan, Yoshirou was defeated when instead of responding Draco laid his head down on Tomoni's shoulder. Giggling at his crestfallen expression, Tonomi kissed Yoshirou on the cheek before leaving the living room and placing Draco inside of his crib.

Once his mother left the room, Draco steeled his nerves and slowly placed a hand above where a certain part of his anatomy should be. Draco gently patted the aforementioned spot and proceeded to... flip the fuck out. It was one thing to suspect that he had been reborn as a female; it was an entirely different thing to have one hundred percent confirmation.


	2. Pure like White Snow

Summary: When Draco Malfoy died at the age of 24, he was not sure where he would end up. He did not know if his sins would result in him being dragged down to the fiery depths of hell, remanded to eternal purgatory, or if his reparations since the war granted him entrance to pearly white gates of paradise. What he definitely did not expect was to be reincarnated as a baby in a world where ninjas existed and magic was considered a figment of imagination.

A/N: I thought it would be hilarious to make Draco a girl, so I did. Sorry for anyone who doesn't like gender-benders but I couldn't resist lol. From this chapter and on, I will be referring to Draco as Misaki and be using feminine pronouns when referring to her.

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 **Chapter 2: Pure like White Snow**

The startling discovery that Misaki had made on her first birthday regarding her gender highlighted the fact that she needed to spend less time wallowing in the past and more time focusing on the present. She definitely didn't do herself any favors by ignoring the situation she was in and allowing her grief to drown out everything else.

The morning after her birthday, she vowed to make the best of her second chance. She forced herself to focus on learning to talk, learning to walk, and interacting more with her new family much to her family's delight.

At first, it was difficult for Misaki to not let the grief consume her. She had spent twenty four years as Draco. The loss of her parents, her friends, and her life consumed every waking thought. Hell, she even missed her boss, coworkers she never particularly cared for, and her job. But little by little, it became easier.

It became easier for her to not think of Lucius when Yoshirou hugged and smiled at her. To not long for the interesting weekly philosophical conversations that Lucius and she had engaged in since the ending of the war. One thing that could never be said about her father was that he wasn't an interesting conversationalist. Though they disagreed on many things, his father had slowly become more progressive over the years.

Slowly, she was able to enjoy story time with Tonomi without thinking of when Narcissa would read to her as a child. To spend time with Tonomi and not mentally replace her person with Narcissa's long blonde hair and warm blue eyes. To watch as Tonomi swept the front porch and not long for the feeling of wind rushing past her face as she raced on her firebolt and the exhilaration of catching the snitch.

Not surprisingly, the fact that she was a girl helped Misaki distance herself mentally from her life as Draco. Draco was a tall man with platinum blonde hair, an angular but handsome face, stormy gray eyes, and a permanent stain on his forearm.

Misaki was an unblemished baby with silky black hair, a cherubic heart shaped face, and sky blue eyes. She was no longer the man who was faced with hate-filled glares and scathing whispers anywhere he went.

She was now an infant with her whole life ahead of her, not the man who had been spending every waking moment trying to atone for past transgressions. She was free of the dark mark, free of the judgmental stares, and free of weighty expectations that came with being the Malfoy heir.

By focusing on her new found freedom, it became easier to push her grief to the background and treasure her new family. Her new family did not have the wealth and luxuries that she had become accustomed to as a Malfoy, but they were not destitute. Yoshirou was a hard-working farmer that was successful enough for Tonomi to be able stay home and raise Misaki. There was always food on the table and their home while not the size of the manor was a comfortable three bedroom two bathroom house.

By the time Misaki was two years old, she was able to understand most of what her parents were saying but speaking was a different story. Misaki had thought that speaking would come easily to her as in her past life she was fluent in French, Latin, and English but learning to speak a non-Latin based language is quite difficult. She was able to talk quite well for a toddler but her speaking skills weren't quite where she wanted them to be. They were nothing to scoff at but for someone who had always been to eloquently express themselves it was frustrating to be reduced to rudimentary speaking skills.

While her speaking skills weren't quite up to snuff, she was no longer forced to crawl everywhere and being able to run around after a year and a half of limited or no mobility was a blessing. Being able to explore and run around on her own two feet helped banish the boredom of being a toddler.

What also was a blessing was the fact that she was now free of the torture of having to use diapers. Peeing while sitting down took some getting used to but anything was better than having to use a diaper. Using a diaper was an experience that Misaki hoped she never had to deal with again.

After being potty-trained, Misaki's next big achievement was learning how to read. Being the only child in the area meant that Misaki was sorely lacking in playmates and so in lieu of a playmate, Tonomi began teaching Misaki how to read.

One cold winter day, instead of letting Misaki outside to play as there was a snowstorm raging, Tonomi pulled out a book called the Tale of the Gutsy Ninja after finishing Misaki's daily reading lesson. After Tonomi finished reading the first couple of chapters of the book to her, Tonomi stood and started to make her way to the bookshelf.

"Kaa-chan when I grow up I'm going to be the bestest ninja ever," Misaki chirped out as excitement lit up her face. Clearly expecting her mother to laugh or gently disabuse her of the notion of ninjas being real as Narcissa had once done, Misaki was stunned when instead of doing either of those her mother's face tightened.

"Misaki-chan, don't say that. The path to becoming a ninja is very dangerous. I don't want you to even think about becoming a ninja," Tonomi admonished as her face darkened at the thought at exactly how dangerous it would be for her precious baby to become a ninja in the current political environment. Even if it was Misaki's heartfelt wish, Tonomi couldn't allow her to endanger herself like that.

"Wait, so ninjas actually exist? How are they able to do all of those awesome things?" questioned Misaki. Back when she had been Draco, she had been fascinated at the thought of ninjas so she had jokingly made that comment, not expecting the comment to actually upset her mother.

"Yes, all too real." Tonomi stated solemnly as her mind thought of people long gone. Seeing the curiosity in Misaki's eyes and knowing that even at this young age that Misaki had an insatiable curiosity, Tonomi heaved a sigh and explained further, "All people have chakra coils, produced within these coils is chakra which is the combination of spiritual and physical energy. Shinobis utilize hand seals and chakra to do ninjutsu, which are the amazing feats from the book."

"So they don't use magic then." Misaki replied pensively. The ninja techniques mentioned in the book had sounded like something that could only be done with the assistance of magic. She had hoped…

"Silly, magic doesn't exist mi-chan. Now enough of this talk, there are cookies and milk in the kitchen with our names on it." The dark look faded off of her face as her mother smiled at Misaki's comment about magic.

As Misaki followed her mother to the kitchen, she finally understood why her magic had felt off since she had been reborn and why none of her attempts at accidental magic had worked. In this world, magic didn't exist. It was a sobering thought. For so long, Misaki had used the fact that she could feel magic coursing through her body as a crutch to get over her depression at losing everything she loved.

What she had previously thought was magic, was in actuality chakra running through her chakra coils. Despite her mother not wanting her to become a ninja, Misaki did not know if she could follow her mother's wishes.

Utilizing chakra was the closest thing this world had to magic and after a lifetime of using magic, she didn't know if she could ignore the only remaining connection to her past life. For the past two years, Misaki had used the fact that she still had her magic and would eventually be able to attend some kind of magical academy to help her adjust to her new life.

Seven months after the initial conversation with her mother, it was a humid summer day as Misaki relaxed underneath the shade of her favorite tree watching the clouds slowly meander across the sky. It was so hot that she was tempted to cool off in the river.

However as her parents had yet to teach her how to swim, it would not be a good idea to attempt swimming without her parent's assistance. Maybe her father would teach her once he returned from his trip. Closing her eyes, Misaki wished that she could enjoy the cool water and resolved to ask her parents to teach her to swim when she felt cool water from the river splashing onto her.

Misaki quickly opened her eyes with a pout on her face, expecting to see her mother's smiling face after she had splashed her. However, she was surprised to see she was still alone. She could clearly feel the water dripping off of her body but she was clueless as to how it got there.

Perhaps, her mother was wrong about magic not existing… Excitement rising, Misaki concentrated and wished that she could feel the refreshing water again. Moments passed and nothing happened. Disheartened, Misaki was about to give up and go inside when she saw water slowly floating out of the river towards her.

Elation surged and disrupted her concentration causing the water to fall a few feet from her, which surprised her. From what she knew about accidental magic, whether her concentration was disrupted or not the water still should have completed its journey to her.

Maybe her training as a wizard in her past life assisted her in doing a ninjutsu without hand seals or training. Excited and eager to share what had happened with her mother, Misaki ran to the house and entered the kitchen.

"Kaa-chan! Kaa-chan! You'll never guess what happened when I was outside by the river!" Misaki exclaimed excitedly, smiling widely.

"What is it, darling? Did you see a pretty fish?" Tonomi asked as she got out a plate and placed some rice crackers onto it.

"Nope, I know you said you don't want me to become a ninja but I made water move. Without any hand seal-"Misaki told Tonomi only to be interrupted by the sound of the plate shattering as it hit the ground. The crackers skittered across the kitchen floor as Tonomi's face turned bone-white.

"Misaki-chan, did anyone see you doing that?" Tonomi anxiously questioned as she grabbed Misaki's shoulders harshly and shook her.

"No one saw me, I was alone at the river," Misaki reassured her mother and some color began to return to Tonomi's face, "kaa-chan you're hurting me."

"Gomenasai mi-chan," Tonomi released Misaki's shoulder and hugged her tightly. "There is something I need to tell you. Something you can't tell anyone else, not even your father. I did not want to ever burden you with this secret, but now I fear I must. The reason I told you to not even think about becoming a ninja is that my clan possessed something called a kekkei genkai. Our country has been ravaged by many civil wars during which clans with kekkei genkai were used a lot. After the most recent civil war, many people began believing that kekkei genkai users were habringers of war and death and so people began to kill kekkei genkai users. You must never do that again mi-chan. If anyone had caught you…"

"What do you mean by our clan possessed? What was our clan called? Are we viewed that way everywhere?" Seeing her mother shake her head, Misaki continued, "Then why don't we leave and move to a country where they accept us?"

"Mi-chan, I believe we are the last of our clan, the Yuki clan. I do not know if there are any other survivors. Mizu no Kuni is our home where else would we live? Beside your father loves his village, he would never leave it."

"Then even if I can't become a ninja, I should still train. You could train me. So if anything happens I will be strong enough to protect us!"

"As long as you never use that ability again, we will be fine. There is no need for you to be trained. Besides even if I wanted to, I wouldn't be able to. I only ever learned the basics before…" her mother trailed off, unseeing eyes staring blankly through Misaki as she was lost in her memories before shaking her head and saying, "As I said, there is no need. Now let's go get you out of these wet clothes."

Misaki wanted to convince her mother that she should train her and that it was better to be prepared for anything but looking at her mother's sad, unfocused eyes as she set out a dry outfit for her, Misaki decided that continuing this conversation could wait for another time.

Over the next few months, Misaki tried to muster up the courage to ask her mother about teaching the basics but every time she was about to ask her, an image of her mother's forlorn face as she thought about her past came to mind.

She obviously had bad memories associated with ninja or her kekkei genkai possibly even both. The one time and only time she managed to broach the subject, her mother shut her down with a resounding no.

One morning as Misaki was heading to the kitchen, she caught sight of her father hugging her mother and swinging her around with giant smiles on their faces. As they caught sight of her, her father let her mother down and her mother approached Misaki and explained, "Misaki-chan, your tou-chan and I have some great news to tell you. In a several months from now you're going to have a baby brother or sister!"

"I'm going to be the best older sister ever!" replied Misaki as she processed the news and happily beamed at her parents.

She had always wanted a younger sibling. She had played all alone in the manor as a young child and been left at home alone with the house elves when her parents attended social events. Being alone had made Misaki want a younger sibling desperately.

However, Narcissa wasn't able to have another child after her so she had laid that dream to rest. The possibility of being able to have a younger sibling in this new life had not even occurred to her.

On a chilly winter afternoon four months after walking in on her parents' celebrating in the kitchen, Tonomi went into labor. Panicking, her father hustled Tonomi and herself into the back of their two-wheeled horse drawn cart and made his way towards the town's only clinic as Misaki sat next to Tonomi wide-eyed and freaking out.

Though knowing she was a girl, it wasn't until she saw her mom suffering from contractions that Misaki realized if she ever wanted to have kids in the future that she would be the one giving birth to them.

As they entered the clinic, the doctor ushered Tonomi and Yoshirou into a private room. As her mother's contractions were fairly far apart, the nurse walked Misaki to Hikari's house.

As the nurse knocked on Hikari's brightly painted green door, Misaki idly wondered if the baby was going to be a boy or a girl. Her parents had wanted to be surprised so they had asked the doctor to keep the gender a secret. Hikari opened the door and seeing the nurse realized that Tonomi was probably in labor so she ushered Misaki into her house.

"So mi-chan, are you excited to finally meet your younger sibling?" Hikari asked as she hung up misaki's thick winter coat and steered Misaki towards the warm kontatsu.

"Un, I can't wait to meet him or her. Do you think they'll have blue eyes like mine?" Misaki pondered as she nibbled on the daifuku Hikari set out for her.

"Mm, maybe they will kiddo. But it's not likely. Both of your parents have brown eyes." Gazing at Misaki, Hikari was overcome with nostalgia. "It's hard to believe just a little while ago, your mother was giving birth to you. You know, it was a surprise when after your birth that your eyes stayed blue. According to your mother, you have your grandfather from your mother's side eye color. One time when we were children, I asked her why she always gazed at the sky and your mother told me that the sky reminded her of her father's eyes. When she realized you inherited his eye color, she was overjoyed."

Misaki spent most of the afternoon and evening hanging out with Hikari. As Misaki was finishing up her dinner, several knocks on the front door were heard. Anxious to meet her younger sibling, Misaki stuffed the last of her rice ball in her mouth and ran to the front door.

As Hikari opened the front door, Misaki quickly changed into her shoes and was about to leave the house when Hikari snagged her collar.

"Mi-chan, forgetting anything?" Hikari teased as she released Misaki's collar.

Taking a look around the foyer, Misaki blushed and smiled sheepishly as Hikari handed her jacket and mittens to her. Glancing at Hikari, Misaki shifted from one foot to the other as she waited for Hikari to put on her winter coat.

After what felt like the longest wait ever, the three of them headed over to the clinic. Entering the private room, the first things Misaki saw were the soft, radiant smiles on her parents' faces and a bundle cradled in her mother's arms.

"Misaki-chan, come and meet your new brother. His name is Haku." Tonomi looked up and beckoned Misaki toward the bed.

As Misaki peered into the bundle lying in her mother's arms and saw the face of her long awaited younger brother for the first time, her world changed in an instant. She had expected to feel something when looking upon her new sibling but not the startling amount of warmth that blossomed in her heart.

Staring at the small squished face of her baby brother as his soft, wrinkly hand rested lightly in her palm, she was struck by an overwhelming amount of affection for him. He was so tiny, so innocent. In that instant, Misaki made a silent vow that she would try to be the best older sister that she could be to Haku.


	3. Ignorance is Bliss

A/N: Apparently "my shit is ass no reviews". To the anonymous person that wrote that, no one is forcing you to read my stuff. If you don't like my story then just exit the page. To Shadow of God, thanks for the review and insight. I'm actually planning on straying quite a bit from the canon at least in regards to Haku. Haku having a sibling, especially one like Draco/Misaki who is an adult in a kid's body, is going to change some things.

* * *

 **Chapter 3: Ignorance is Bliss**

The next ten months after Haku's birth passed by quickly. Haku was an adorable infant. With his chubby cheeks and warm brown eyes, he made Misaki melt into a pile of goo every time she saw him. She had never felt this kind of affection for anyone but her parents before.

The first couple of months, it was hard for Misaki to adjust to having Haku in the house. Not because she disliked Haku or because she was jealous but because Misaki realized after the first week that she was a light sleeper.

No matter how fast her parents woke up and tended to Haku, his nursery was right next to her room so his cries usually woke Misaki out of her sleep. Thankfully along with being a light sleeper, Misaki discovers that she was able to fall right back to sleep quite easily as well.

One day as she was playing peek-a-boo with Haku in the kitchen while her mother put away the dishes, she heard her father make a noise of surprise. Knowing that her father and his friend, Takeru, were discussing current events as they always do on Wednesday evenings, Misaki was curious as to what they're discussing. Unable to ignore her curiosity, she placed Haku back into his playpen and listened by the door only to be horrified by what she heard.

The past fourteen carefree months faded away in an instant and Misaki's mind was thrown back to the day that she had learned about having a kekkei genkai. Her father and Takeru were discussing an attack that happened in a small fishing village on the island northeast of the island their village was on. The villagers had discovered that a family of kekkei genkai users resided among them and lynched them. She strained to hear what her father's opinion was on the matter only to back pedal as she heard footsteps approaching the kitchen.

"Tonami, I'm going to head over to Takeru's house for a bit. I'll be back in a couple hours." Yoshirou popped into the kitchen, kissed Tonomi on the check, and patted Misaki gently on the head before leaving.

Peering through the kitchen window, Misaki saw that her father and Takeru exited the house and walked towards the direction of Takeru's house. Once she could longer see their figures in the distance, Misaki steeled herself and turned towards her mother.

"Kaa-chan, I know that you said there is no need for me to learn shinobi skills but I think I need to learn. I promise not to use the thing we spoke about, but for your safety, my safety, and haku's I want to try. Tou-chan and Takeru-oji were talking about how a family of kekkei genkai users in a village on Hozo Island were discovered and lynched. Hopefully, I will never have to use those skills to try to protect any of us, but it is better to be safe than sorry. If I do know some shinobi skills, I will at least have a shot at protecting us when I'm older. Please kaa-chan, teach me!"

Looking at her daughter's determined sky-blue eyes and listening to her heartfelt pleas moved Tonomi as they reminded her of the last time she had seen her beloved father. His steely sky-blue eyes softening as he hugged her for the last time before urging her to run as fast as she could. It reminded her of seeing the hope that she would survive in his eyes before he set his shoulders and turned around to confront the people pursuing them.

He would have loved how smart and spirited Misaki was. Her father had taken great joy in teaching her and would have been overjoyed to teach his granddaughter the shinobi arts. Misaki deserved the best possible shot at life. She could not deny her baby the chance to learn how to protect herself. Closing her eyes to ward off the onset of tears, Tonomi felt her resolve crumble and gave a watery nod.

"You remind me so much of your grandfather and not just his eyes. He would have loved you and he would be proud of you wanting to protect our family. I promise I will teach you what I know. Just promise me; no… swear to me that you won't use that thing. Using it will bring us nothing but pain." Seeing her daughter nod in acquiescence to her requirement loosened the knot that had been forming in her stomach since Misaki first broached the subject.

As Tonomi watched Misaki resume playing peek-a-boo with Haku, she wondered wistfully when Misaki grew to be so mature. It seemed like it was only yesterday that her baby was barely learning to talk and now she was going to teach her baby the shinobi arts.

Misaki was just a young girl and Tonomi knew that Misaki didn't quite understand the full implications of being a shinobi yet. Her heart was in the right place, but the path of a ninja was usually violence-filled and troubled.

Tonomi's heart ached at the thought of either of her precious babies becoming jaded full-fledged ninjas, but her mind acknowledged the fact that Misaki was right. With the current situation in Mizu, she couldn't just hope that the love and peace her family was currently enjoying would last forever. But as she watched Haku cheerfully giggle at Misaki's antics, she couldn't help but wish that it did.

It wasn't until after Misaki's fourth birthday passed and a few days after Haku's first birthday passed that Tonomi made good on her promise. Instead of letting Misaki go off to play after her daily lesson, Tonomi sat her down and explained, "Chakra is created when two forms of energy are molded together. The two types of energy are physical energy that can be increased through training and exercise and mental energy that can be increased through studying, mediation, and experience. You're too young to work on strengthening your physical energy, so I'm going to teach you chakra control. The first thing you need to do Misaki-chan is learn to meditate so you can get a feel on your chakra. To meditate, you need to clear your mind of all thoughts and focus inward. Don't be disheartened if you don't find your chakra your first try. Most people don't start learning chakra control until they're at least five or six."

Pulling out a book to read as she expected Misaki to take a few attempts to find her chakra if she managed to find it at all, Tonomi dropped her book in surprise when minutes later Misaki chirped out that she had found her chakra. Tonomi bit her lower lip as she processed the news and picked her book off of the ground.

She had always known that her daughter was intelligent, the age and speed at which she had learned to read and talk was a testimony of that. She didn't know whether to be elated or dismayed by the fact that it seemed like Misaki was going to be equally talented at learning how to use chakra. On one hand, she was happy that Misaki was gifted quite possibly even a prodigy but she had been secretly hoping that Misaki would be unable to find her chakra so that she could delay teaching Misaki the shinobi arts for a little while longer.

Unbeknownst to Tonomi, her daughter was an expert at meditation from years of learning occlumency in her past life and has been meditating since her rebirth to help compartmentalize her past memories and work through her depression.

"Did I do something wrong? Are you feeling alright kaa-chan?" Misaki questioned after seeing the conflicting emotions on her mother's face.

"You did nothing wrong and I'm fine. You did well, I just wasn't expecting you to grasp the concept so fast Misaki-chan. It just means that it is time to move onto the next step, chakra control." Tonomi smiled wanly at Misaki and placed a small square of paper onto her open palm. "Focus on using a thin layer of chakra to stick the paper to your hand."

Determined to succeed, Misaki used a small amount of her chakra to try sticking the paper to her hand only to be left staring with her mouth agape as the paper flew off of her hand at a startling speed. Tonomi smiled widely at Misaki's confusion before telling her to use less chakra.

Despite her mother's instructions, Misaki's paper square continued to fly off of her hand each attempt. After an hour of her mother's gentle giggles and paper flying everywhere, Misaki forced herself to come to terms with the fact that her control was abysmal.

Seeing the forlorn look on her daughter's face, Tonomi stopped giggling and explained, "Don't be sad that you weren't able to succeed on your first try Misaki-chan. From what my father told me, most people aren't able to keep the paper stuck to their hands the first several times. When I first was learning chakra control, I wasn't able to get the paper to stick to my hand for a long time. My problem was lack of chakra whereas your problem seems to be the opposite. It's strange though… usually girls have better control and less chakra and boys vice versa. The only way to get better is not get frustrated and continue practicing."

So Misaki practiced… and practiced… and practiced some more. It ended up taking Misaki the next year to get her chakra control to the point where she could consistently keep the paper stuck to her hand and even then, if her concentration was broken, then the paper would rocket off of her hand.

Being able to keep one aspect of her past life, her magic, even if it was in a different form was something Misaki wouldn't trade for the world. However, trying to utilize a tiny trickle of said chakra out of a massive river wasn't something she'd wish upon anyone.

By the time she was able to consistently do the exercise even with interruptions, Haku had transformed from the angry I'm-teething-and-you-must-all-feel-my-wrath toddler back to the sweetheart he had been before he started to teethe. She sympathized with Haku as her own teething experience had been terrible but sympathy didn't mean she wanted to be a human-shaped chew toy, so she was glad when he finally stops teething.

Luckily for her parents, they had discovered the old freeze some kind of fruit and let your teething toddler chew on it trick halfway through when Misaki's teeth were starting to grow in so they were able to utilize that as soon as Haku's teeth began growing in.

He was now at the stage where he was able to express himself through mostly complete sentences and his curiosity had blossomed so Misaki's days were filled with her adorable chubby-cheeked and bright-eyed brother following her around asking what certain objects were and attempting to mimic her.

With Misaki's helping her mother out with Haku, Tonomi had a lot more free time than when Misaki was a toddler. Tonomi used some of that time to teach Misaki the twelve hand seals, common information about the five main elemental countries, and started her on physical training exercises to increase her speed and endurance.

Misaki had already realized that with kekkei genkais and chakra that this world was vastly different from her old world, but seeing the map of the world was still jarring. It was during one of these lessons about the five main elemental countries that Misaki learned more about her maternal grandfather.

Tonomi had sporadically mentioned her grandfather when she trained Misaki in the shinobi arts but the sadness present in her eyes when she mentioned him kept Misaki from trying to learn more about her grandfather. So it was a surprise when after finishing up the lesson on the country closest to Mizu, that her mother motioned for her to sit down again.

"I haven't thought about that country in the longest time. When the prejudice towards kekkei genkai users started to grow, fearing the worst, my father decided that we should try to head to a more peaceful nation. I was a defenseless child and on the off chance that they did decide to start persecuting those with kekkei genkai, my father wanted us to be safe. We had left the main island where Kirigakure is and were on our way out of Mizu heading towards fire country." Tonomi reminisced as she laid her hand wistfully on the symbol for fire on the map.

"If you and oji-san were leaving, how come you stayed in Mizu?" Misaki asked quietly.

"Simple, we got caught as we were trying to leave. He was a talented Kiri shinobi and they don't take kindly to deserters. As for why I stayed in Mizu … back then and even now there are a lot of boats that travelled between the islands but most of the boats that leave for the mainland take off from the west most island, Shikogawa or the main island where Kirigakure is." Here her mother paused to point out the aforementioned islands on the map. "The journey from Kirigakure to Fire Country is a lot more expensive and takes much longer than going to Taku, Shikogawa, and then Fire Country. After my father had been caught, I had taken a boat to the island we currently live on, Taku, with the intent on going to Shikogawa when I fell ill. Your father's parents found me delirious and passed out on the docks as they were returning home from a trip. They nursed me back to health and offered me a home. At first, I stayed only intending on repaying their kindness before moving on, but before I knew it I had made a home on Taku and then fallen in love with your father. We got married and then you know the rest of this story."

After hearing her mother's tragic past, Misaki understood why her mother had reacted so extremely to her wish to become a ninja and her usage of her kekkei genkai. If she were in her mother's shoes, she wouldn't want her daughter to become a ninja of the village that had hunted down her father.

Over the next year and a half, Misaki learned several more beginner chakra control exercises and began to learn the tree walking exercise. Knowing chakra control wasn't her strong suit, Misaki learned by trying to get her foot to stick to the side of the tree before even attempting to walk up the tree. She hadn't wanted to fall on her ass multiple times. So perhaps a more accurate name would be tree stomping exercise not tree walking exercise.

Misaki could honestly say that this was the happiest she had been in both lives. She had loving parents, an adorable brother, and no problems or stress. Her mornings were filled with training with her mother and playing with Haku. After Haku's and her short lesson with Tonomi in the afternoon, Haku and Misaki explored the forest, played in the snow, or did whatever struck their fancy.

In the evenings when her father got home from work, they played board games together or on nights where it was warm enough, they sat out on the porch to watch the sunset and the stars begin to appear in the night sky. While they didn't travel much, their parents took Haku and Misaki on trips to visit nearby islands or towns once or twice a year, they went camping a few times a year when the weather permits, and they attended the nearby New Year's Festival together annually. It was a simple life but as Misaki had found, sometimes the simplest things brought people the greatest joy.

One day shortly after her seventh birthday and a few weeks before Haku's birthday, Misaki took her mother aside as Haku napped in the warm afternoon sunshine on the front porch. "Kaa-chan, Haku's almost four… Shouldn't we warn him or tell him about our kekkei genkai? I discovered it way before I turned four."

"True, but you've always been very gifted mi-chan. Most people in our clan did not discover theirs until they were six and some didn't discover it until they were eight. Maybe Haku has been born without it. I don't want to needlessly worry him. I will tell him when he's older." Her mother responded as she looked fondly at Haku sleeping on the porch.

"But-"Misaki tried explaining her reasoning but her mother cut her off.

"No buts young lady. I know you are looking out for Haku but I don't want you telling him. He's too young; he's not as mature as you were at his age. I don't want him this weighing him down. It is heaven burden to bear. Promise me you will not tell him. Everything will be fine." Tonomi sternly looked her daughter in the eye until Misaki acquiesced.

Misaki understood wanting to preserve Haku's innocence for as long as possible as she felt the same way. She wanted to believe that everything would be fine like her mother said but she couldn't help but feel that this was the wrong decision. From her life experiences, knowledge was power and while ignorance could be bliss, it could also have terrible consequences.

But according to Tonomi, most people did not discover their kekkei genkai until much later so… maybe Haku didn't need to know until he was older; Misaki knew that she was a unique case because she had her previous life's magic.

On the morning of his fourth birthday, Haku woke up and upon seeing his sister was still asleep, he went to wake her up. He quietly opened her bedroom door and jumped on her bed with a mischievous smile on his face. "Nee-channn wake up! It's my birthday today!" Misaki groaned and groggily responded, "Okay, okay I'm up." Knowing that his sister wouldn't go back to sleep, especially on his birthday, Haku raced to his parents room and prepared to do the same to them when he realized it was empty.

Hearing his father's chuckles, Haku turned around. "Maa, you were about to try and wake us up in the same manner you woke your sister up, huh? Your mother and I have already been awake for a bit setting up for your birthday." His father said with an amused smile. Grinning sheepishly, Haku nodded.

Hearing Hikari-oba's voice coming from the living room, Haku shuffled to the living room. "Hikari-oba, I'm so glad you could make it to my birthday. I wasn't sure if you'd come since kaa-chan said you hadn't been feeling well." Hikari rubbed her protruding belly as smiled down at Haku, "Aa, I was feeling a little ill thanks to this little guy here but I'm fine now. I wouldn't miss your birthday for the world."

"I can't wait for your baby to be born! I'll have another playmate then." Haku smiled at the thought.

"Well he's not going to be born for a while but at least in the meantime you have Misaki-chan, ne?"

"Yeah, Misaki-nee is fun to play with. Nee-chan is the best!" Haku said with a content smile on his face.

Hikari smiled at Haku's comment before responding, "I'm sure Misaki-chan would be happy to hear that. Anyways birthday boy, I don't want to monopolize your time; you should also greet your other guests."

As Haku went and greeted the other guests, Yoshirou entered the living room and stood next to Hikari. "He's so big now; it's hard to believe that already four years have passed since he was born. It seems like it was only yesterday that he was speaking his first words and learning how to walk."

"True, I bet you were ecstatic that his first word was tou-chan. I can still remember your expression from when Misaki-chan first said kaa-chan and then fell asleep as you were trying to get her to say tou-chan." Hikari teased with a cheeky grin on her face.

"I swear she looked at me and then decided to sleep. Misaki was a spirited one even as a baby. Man, the facial expressions she made when we first started feeding her baby food were hilarious. I didn't even know a baby could make expressions like that until we had her."

Towards the end of the party, Tonomi brought out Haku's favorite cake, a chocolate cake with chocolate chips covered in chocolate frosting, with four candles on top of it. As his family friends and family sung happy birthday, Haku looked around at the cheerful smiling faces of his loved ones surrounding him and he couldn't be happier. Closing his eyes and blowing out his candles, he wished that things would always be this way.

On a cold January afternoon two weeks after Haku's birthday, Misaki was reading a book underneath her favorite tree after spending the morning helping her mom make mochi and onigiri as Haku made a snow fort a few feet away when her mother called her into the house. When Misaki entered the house, Tonomi asked her to bring some mochi and a new batch of herbal tea that helped with morning sickness to Hikari as Hikari had mentioned she was running low the other day. Nodding, Misaki picked up the packages of wrapped mochi and herbal tea and set out for Hikari-oba's house.

As Misaki was making her way towards Hikari's house, Haku began to get bored of making a snow fort. With Misaki-nee gone, he slowly trudged along the frozen river trying to find something interesting to do. Looking at the frozen river, he wished that spring time would come faster so he'd be able to play in the water. As he decided to head inside, he saw the most miraculous thing.

There was a stream of water floating in the air near him. Curious, he moves his hand to the side and was delighted when the water follows his movement. His face lit up with a grin as he settled down near the bank, began making various hand movements, and watched in amazement as the water continues to follow his movements.

Fifteen minutes after sending Misaki to Hikari's house, Tonomi went outside to call Haku inside for a snack of mochi and hot cocoa. As she got closer to Haku, Tonomi blanched at the sight of him next to floating water in the air. Horrified, Tonomi rushed towards Haku and placed a hand on his shoulder which startled him into dropping the water.

"Do not ever do that again. It could have been very dangerous if anyone saw you. Come inside and I will explain." Tonomi harshly admonished Haku before leading him inside. Seeing that no one had seen his display, the terror that had struck her at the sight of him using his kekkei genkai began to recede. Unbeknownst to them as they relaxed and talked inside the comfort of their home, someone had seen Haku's display.

After dropping off the mochi and herbal tea to Hikari, Misaki began to make her way home munching on the snacks Hikari had given her. As she was walking home, she wondered if Haku had finished the snow fort yet. If he hadn't, she would help him make it into the best snow fort ever. With the cold temperatures in February, they would probably be able to play it in for a few days.

As she neared her house, she was surprised to see a group of six people in the yard. To her knowledge, her parents' weren't planning on having guests over. When she got closer to her house, she was even more surprised to hear those people yelling and waving farming tools.

Misaki felt a sinking sensation in her gut and she ran the rest of the way towards her house. As she made to pass by her neighbor to see what was going on, he gently grabbed her arm and stopped her from proceeding forward. "Misaki-chan, I think its best if you head to Hikari-san's house."

Catching a glimpse of what looks like Haku's winter coat, Misaki squirmed out of her neighbor's hold and darted forward. Her mother and Haku were standing with their backs towards the house and her mother was brandishing a mattock to keep the crowd a good distance away from them. Seeing her mother in distress, Misaki dashed past the villagers and made her way to her mother and Haku. "Kaa-chan, what's going on?"

"They discovered Haku-chan and I have kekkei genkais and they are trying to get rid of us, but I'm not letting them harm us without a fight. Protect Haku, I will handle them." Her mother replied grimly before turning to address the crowd. "I don't want to fight you guys. Let us leave peacefully and we can all go our separate ways with no bloodshed." As her mother addressed the crowd, Misaki saw an all too familiar face among the villagers, a face that caused her heart to twist in anguish and angry tears to form in her eyes.

Her father with tears streaming down his face was standing with the crowd of pitchfork and hoe wielding villagers. She yelled his name and tried to catch his eyes but he refused to even look in their direction. Disheartened, Misaki pulled Haku into her arms so his face was facing her chest and covered his ears. Slowly, Haku's small arms shakily rose to cover her ears.

Seeing no response other than the crowd inching forward, Tonomi realized that talking would not dissuade this mob and knowing that she needed to protect her babies, she readied herself. Thanks to the physical exercises she has done over the past two years with her daughter, Tonomi was able to hold her own at first.

She dispatched of three of the angry mob and received minimal scratches in return. When she was dispatching of the fourth one, one of the remaining men managed to wound her with his pitchfork. As Tonomi felt the warm blood gushing out of the long scratch on her abdomen, she wished she had practiced controlling her chakra when she had been teaching her daughter.

But she had been happy for such a long time that she hadn't really thought that anything bad would happen, so she hadn't. After a lifetime of neglect, she had little to no chakra control and her kekkei genkai was pretty much dormant.

When her daughter started to set Haku down and prepare to fight, Tonomi motioned for her to stay back. She didn't want her precious daughter to become a murderer at seven because of her choices and mistakes. She could handle these bigoted villagers.

As she faced down the last villager and her husband, Tonomi felt herself starting to slow a little from exhaustion. Tampering down on her panic, she forced herself to focus on the remaining people. The last villager slipped on a puddle of blood as he darts forward, giving Tonomi the advantage she needed to take him out. As she was pulling her weapon from him, she felt the sharp edge of a grubbing axe enter her back.

Dazed, Tonomi realized that Yoshirou had just stabbed her in the back. She knew that he had to be the one that told the villagers but somewhere deep in her heart, she had foolishly hoped once she had gotten rid of them that she would be able to convince him to let them leave. As she fell to the ground, she tried to get up but could only watch helplessly as Yoshirou picked up an abandoned weapon and advanced on Haku and Misaki.

"Please stop Yoshirou! They're your children too. I don't care what you do to me, just let them go. Give them a chance for a better life. They didn't choose to be born with this. Please, I'm begging you." Tonomi begged desperately with her hand stretched towards him. Yoshirou hesitated and turned towards Tonomi. For a second, hope surged in her chest before it was shattered by despair in his voice as he said, "So Misaki has it too… I'm sorry…"

Watching Yoshirou ignore her pleas to spare their lives, something snapped in Tonomi and she was overcome with fury. How dare he sound saddened by his actions. No one forced him to set the villagers on him. He made that choice. She never thought that her hus- no he didn't deserve that title she thought angrily- Yoshirou was kind of person would stab her in the back and then proceed to murder his two innocent children. As he approached them with a pitchfork in hand, her anger exploded as did her kekkei genkai. Yoshirou was simultaneously impaled by multiple ice spikes a few steps away from where he had turned away from Tonomi.

Misaki grabbed Haku's hand and rushed to their mother's side. Tonomi's wounds looked really bad. She probably would have been fine with just the initial wound on her stomach but… the gash on her back was very deep. Still, Misaki resolved to try. Through her tears, she asked, "kaa-chan, where are our medical supplies? Do we have gauze and-"

"Misaki-chan, my precious daughter, it's too late for me... My wounds would require much more than our village's doctor even if he would still be willing to try. Help me onto my back; I want to see your guys' faces. Haku-chan and Misaki-chan, I love you both very much. I'm so sorry that things turned out this way. Misaki-chan, I release you from what you swore to me when I began teaching you; use anything at your disposal to take care of your brother. Underneath my bed, there is a storage scroll with our life savings in it. Seal whatever else you can quickly pack into it and leave this accursed country. Haku-chan, listen to your sister and watch out for her as well." Seeing the guilt mixed in with the sadness as tears poured down Haku's face as he sobbed, she continued, "My beloved baby boy, I don't want you to ever think that any of this was your fault. The only people at fault here are your father, the villagers, and I. Promise me, you won't blame yourself. This is my final wish. Now go pack, the sooner you guys leave, the safer you will be."

"Kaa-chan, we're going to stay with you until…" Misaki drifted off unable to actually say the word die. Tonomi felt her heart warm at her daughter's sentiment but she shook her head. As much as she wanted them to stay with her until she died it wasn't what was best for them. Besides she wanted their last memory of her to be of her smiling not her dead body.

"Thank you baby, but my top priority is you and your brother getting to safety. Nothing else matters. Please, do it for me. Besides Haku will be here with me while you go pack. I will be here when you get back." Misaki wanted to stay with her mother too, but she also understood her logic. Not wanting to defy the last thing her mother would ever ask of her, Misaki agreed and rushed inside. She took two backpacks and threw several changes of clothes, canteens, money from their respective piggy banks, and extra shoes into it before attaching sleeping bags onto them. Running to her parents' room, she quickly grabbed the scroll from under the bed and began throwing pictures, more clothes, a tent; anything she thought could be of use into it before running back into the kitchen to grab the onigiri, mochi, and whatever other food items that would last.

Fully packing in less than ten minutes, Misaki rushed back outside praying that her mother was still there. Upon reaching her mother, Misaki let out a sigh of relief at seeing her talking with Haku. Haku was still crying but he's no longer sobbing inconsolably as he had been when she left.

Smiling, Tonomi told Haku and Misaki that she would always love them no matter what one last time and that she would watch over them. She squeezed each of their hands warmly before urging them to leave. As Haku and Misaki's diminutive figures walked further and further away until she could no longer see them, Tonomi finally released the tears she had been holding in and let them gush out.

She sobbed because she knew they will only have each other and it might not be enough in the harsh world out there. Because she will never see her children grow up, get married, and have children of their own. As she felt the last of her strength begin to seep out of her, Tonomi could only hope and pray that they found safety and happiness.


	4. The Kindness of Strangers

A/N: I'm going to be using the currency used in canon, ryo. The rate is about 10ryo = $1USD . To Shadow of God, thanks for second review :D I had already had this chapter written out when I read your review so its actually pretty funny that you would mention Misaki possibly stealing from civilians.

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 **Chapter 4: The Kindness of Strangers**

Reaching the outskirts of Taku Harbor, Misaki abandoned the two-wheeled cart and she freed her family's horse of its harness.

Still crying, Haku pet the gentle steed on its velvety nose as Misaki fed the horse a few carrot pieces she had stuffed in her pocket as Hoshi nickered and she stroked the horse's mane for the last time. As she and Haku walked away towards the town, she heard Hoshi stomp his feet and whine.

"Sorry, Hoshi but you can't go with us to where we are going." Misaki said as she turned back to the horse one last time with a shooing motion. "Now go on, shoo, go back home."

Watching Hoshi whine one more time before heading back in the direction of home, Misaki knew that Hikari-oba would take care of Hoshi. Hikari-oba had loved Hoshi ever since he had been born. Misaki and Hikari-oba had bonded over their mutual love of the gentle creature.

She had managed to stop crying after the hour cart ride it took to reach Taku Harbor where she paid their fare for the boat they were current on. As much as she wanted to cry, she didn't. She needed to be strong for Haku right now. While they had both just lost their beloved mother, she was not really a seven year old and he was an actual grieving four year old. Even now as they made their way closer to Shikogawa, silent tears dripped down Haku's face.

Misaki looked over calm waters as she saw Shikogawa approaching in the distance. As she rested her arm around Haku's shoulder, she wondered if she was making the right decision.

She was following her mother's directions and attempting to leave the country. She knew they needed to take a boat from the capital in Shikogawa but that was all she knew and Misaki felt unsettled by the long journey ahead of them.

Haku was a four year old and while mentally she was an adult, physically she was seven years old. A short and young looking seven year old at that. Misaki wondered if it was even possible for them to make the arduous journey from Suzu to whichever port on the mainland in Fire country. When her mother had tried leaving, she had left with her father. She and Haku were two sheltered kids.

Perhaps, it would be safer to stay in Suzu for a few years before making the trek. But if they stayed what were they going to do in Suzu until they were old enough to make the journey? Realistically, Misaki didn't have a steady way of making money to support them and their parents' savings weren't going to last forever. After counting the amount and factoring in the inflation that a big city was bound to have, their savings would last a year maybe two tops even if they lived extremely frugally. Sure she could read, write, and use chakra but that was where her job qualifications ended.

It was not like she could go up to someone and say, "Hey, I know I look like a seven year old but in my previous life I was a highly successful twenty-four year old magical researcher that also ran a booming business empire. I have to support my four year old brother, so could you be a dear and hire me? Trust me you won't regret it. What about my parents? Yeah, well my father discovered my mom, brother, and I have something called a kekkei genkai and decided to be a cowardly prick and set a mob of ignorant villagers on us. So it is just me and my brother now. We're good right?" She could never say any of that without looking like a raving lunatic and being thrown into some kind of mental ward.

There was one job she could probably do after some training but it was one she didn't even want to consider. She didn't want to become a ninja for the nation that had hunted her grandfather down or fight to defend inhabitants that would sooner kill them than thank them. After what the villagers had tried to Haku and her for something they had been born with, the citizens of mist could rot in hell for all she cared about them.

Besides that would require them going to the main island to Kiri where they would have to make absolutely sure that no one ever learned they had kekkei genkei. A slip up there would be fatal.

It also would be dangerous for two young children to stay in Suzu. Although it was the capital of Shirokawa and a thriving port city, the civil wars that had ravaged the rest of the country have not left it unscathed. Whereas fire country was a nation that had enjoyed peace since the last great ninja war and was said to be the kindest of all nations. Misaki didn't know if the last part was true but she did know that it already sounded better than here.

The boat entered the port as Misaki squeezed Haku's hand and he used his other to dry the last of his tears. Looking at his face, Misaki saw the deep sadness residing in his face and the slight sheen of unshed tears in his round eyes but she also saw the beginnings of determination that made her so proud of his strength. Looking into his eyes, she saw the determination to leave Mizu no Kuni behind and in that moment she made her decision. Hopefully it was the right one.

As long as they remain within the borders of Mizu no Kuni, they would have to live in fear that one day someone would discover they had kekkei genkai. Misaki wanted Haku to have as happy of a childhood as he could and it was impossible for that to happen here.

According to what Tonomi had taught her, there were two port cities in fire country they could journey to from Suzu. It was possible to go to a closer port city not in fire country, but it would take a few weeks to even cross the border into fire country. Let alone how much further south the border was from Konoha.

Both possible ports were on the eastern seaboard of Fire country, one slightly above where the isthmus connected to Konoha and one further north. The one further north was closer to Konoha as well as a shorter journey by boat, which was always a good thing when the boats in the shinobi world were the equivalent of sixteenth century muggle ships that she had seen in a history book once.

For a world that was able to have marvels such as electricity, refrigerators, and modern plumbing, their seafaring vessels sure did suck. By taking latter route, they would be sailing much closer to the treacherous waters near whirlpool that were much stormier than the calmer seas closer to the southern peninsula of the mainland. Taking into consideration that their safety was paramount, Misaki made up her mind.

As the captain announced they were a few minutes from docking, Misaki told Haku the final plan. "Haku-kun, we're going to find passage on a ship to the port, Gamagori. As it was a major port city, once we arrive there I'm going to find some way for us to make it safely to Konoha. We're going to leave as soon as we can find a boat headed for fire country."

"Ok nee-chan," Haku replied solemnly with red-rimmed eyes as he hugged Misaki tightly. "I'm so glad that I have you nee-chan, I don't know what I would do if you weren't here."

Hugging him back just as tightly, his heartfelt words caused the tears she had been fighting back since they left Taku to prickle her eyes. As they prepared to leave the boat, Misaki hoped that she could always be there for him and that he never had to find out what he would do without her.

After double checking to make sure they hadn't forgotten anything, Haku and Misaki lined up behind the other passengers waiting to leave the boat. As they passed by the captain, Misaki inquired where would be the best place to secure passage to Gamagori.

Misaki felt some of her uncertainty dissipate when she found out there was a travel agency right here on the dock where they sold cabins or spaces on boats for all the boats leaving Suzu to any of the ports along the mainland. Thanking the captain for his information, Misaki and Haku left the boat and headed for that building.

Entering the well-lit building, Misaki and Haku waited in a long line before being helped. When she's called up to the counter Misaki asked, "How long does the journey to Gamagori take? When is the next ship with available passage leaving for Gamagori and what price options are available?" Hoping that there was a ship leaving soon, Misaki glanced around the spacious room as the travel agent looked through what was available.

"The journey to Gamatori takes from two weeks up to four weeks depending on the weather. If you're looking to leave immediately, you're actually in luck. There is a passenger ship leaving for Gamatori in an hour with one first class cabin, one innermost cabin that sleeps eight with three spots open, and one cabin with that sleeps two with a window available," seeing Misaki nod, the agent continued, "The price for the first class cabin is 14,000 ryo, the price for the cabin with two bunks in it is 6800 ryo, and each spot in the cabin that sleeps eight is 2000 ryo. As the ship wants to fill out all vacancies, this is going to be the best price. Much better than if you booked a ship leaving a week from now."

Thinking over their options, Misaki definitely did not want to be in a cramped cabin with 5 to 6 other people for up to a month nor was she going to pay the expensive rate for the first class cabin so that only left the cabin that sleeps two. Misaki handed over the appropriate amount, received her two tickets, and a map of the pier with the location of the boat circled.

The sun had already set when they exited the travel agency and the streetlights shined dimly on the street giving everything a half shadowed almost sinister glow.

As they made their way in the direction of the boat, Misaki couldn't help but notice the shady characters loitering around on the docks. Silently pulling Haku closer and walking faster, she could see the boat in the distance when two men step out into their path. Moving to the side to step past them, Misaki grew concerned when they stepped to the side to continue blocking their path.

"Look what we've got here, Jin. A couple of babies out way past their bedtimes, where are your parents?" One of the lowlifes smiled with his teeth glinting as the other yanked Misaki's backpack off her back, upended the contents on the floor, and dug through her wallet. "Woah, this is quite a bit of change for a little baby to be carrying. In fact, I don't think there's any way you could need all of that money. Why don't you be a good child and give it to your elders. Check the other one's bag too."

As his accomplice tried to reach for Haku, Misaki instinctively stepped in front of Haku and swatted the man's hand away from her baby brother.

"Ah guess this one's a little spitfire. Didn't your parents teach you any manners? Aww, are you looking around for someone to save you? How cute. It's okay, take as long as you need. In these parts, people tend to clear out when conflict happens. I'm going to ask you one more time nicely to hand over the bag and the second time is going to be not so nice. Actually… I changed my mind. Cute, fresh-faced babies like you will fetch a pretty penny," The obvious leader of the two stated mockingly. She would know. She once had her own minions at her beck and call.

Looking around, Misaki's stomach twisted at the implications of his words and churned as she realized the asshole was right about people clearing out. While there had been people milling around literally right before these two men stepped out into their path, the street was now completely empty.

While most of their money was in the storage scroll tucked under her shirt, she hadn't been sure how much the fare for two would cost so she had split 12000 ryo between hers and Haku's bags. However, there was no amount of money worth Haku's safety so she had been about to apologize and give them Haku's wallet when those loathsome words left his mouth. She couldn't believe these disgusting cretins wanted to sell her and Haku on the black market.

She realized that since they were civilian thugs, if she could manage to enhance her speed with chakra that she would definitely be able to take them on. Her mom had mentioned the theory to her but as she had not learned it before she had been separated from her father; she had been unable to teach Misaki it.

But it was dangerous to attempt something like that without knowing how to properly do that. Without a chakra speed enhancement, she should be able to take them but it would be riskier. She had never been in actual physical fight in either of her lives and failing here is not an option.

She wished she had learned something more than henge and the body replacement technique or had the forethought to henge into an adult earlier so she and Haku wouldn't have seemed like such easy targets. She hadn't realized the docks would be so sketchy at night. She had been so rattled by her mother's death just hours before that she hadn't even thought about it.

There were no witnesses and the greedy looks in these thugs' eyes suggested they were serious about their plan of selling her and Haku. She would not allow them to do something like that to Haku or her.

She knew they had no chance of making it aboard the boat without them catching them if they just tried running. By herself, she probably would be able to make it. But Haku had no training; he would never be able to outrun a fully grown man. She wasn't strong enough to carry Haku the whole way to the boat, let alone while trying to outrun them. The only chance she had was to have Haku take off towards the boat while she somehow got the jump on them before taking off as well.

While she really didn't want to use her kekkei genkai within Mizu no Kuni borders, worst case scenario she might have to. After double checking the streets desperately hoping that anyone would come along and help them, Misaki turned back towards them and prepared to defend herself.

The minion reached out to shove Misaki aside and she tensed ready to spring into action when a large hand stopped the thug's arm in place and a deep voice growled out, "Maybe you lowlifes should learn to pick on someone your own size, instead of as you said babies."

Misaki's eyes followed the large gloved hand up a lithe muscular arm sticking out of the black hooded cloak of their savior. Holy shit, that guy was fast and definitely some type of shinobi. She had not seen anyone on the dock when she checked and this guy managed to sneak up on them silently.

"Or maybe you should learn to mind your own business," The second obviously retarded thug responded as he tried to pull the guy's hand off of his arm to no avail.

Misaki was dumbfounded; even as a child she knew the first rule of surviving as a civilian in Water was that you don't fuck with shinobi, which this guy obviously was. It was tantamount to suicide. Either the thug was too dumb recognize that or he was dumb enough to think he had a chance.

As she saw the terrified look on the leader's face, she couldn't help but derive some satisfaction at him getting a taste of his own medicine. Judging by how quickly he went from trying to rob them to deciding they would go for a pretty penny, they probably weren't the first children he had accosted or possibly even sold.

The leader started to pocket her wallet and backed away from the scene slowly.

"And just where do you think you're going jackass?" The shinobi asked as he reappeared in front the first thug. Startled the thug yelped and fell to the ground.

"Pathetic. Give me back the girl's wallet. In fact, in light of what you assholes were about to do to these children, empty out both of your wallets."

The guy who had tried to run immediately emptied his wallet and placed his money and Misaki's wallet onto the tall shinobi's hand. The second guy looked like he was about to protest when the shinobi placed his hand on the hilt of the huge sword strapped to his back. "Don't make me ask you again," which caused the man to pale and empty his wallet placing a large stack of ryo into the shinobi's hand. After both men ran off, the shinobi turned toward Misaki and Haku holding out the money and wallet.

"Take this." He then gave them a sideways glance before barking out, "Two brats like you shouldn't be traipsing around out here so late. I'll walk you to your destination."

Taking the money and her wallet from him, Misaki and Haku thanked him for saving them.

As they walked alongside the tall shinobi towards their new home for the next two to four weeks, Misaki noticed he was wearing flak jacket with dark stains that hadn't seen a washer in days and a Kiri headband. She deduced that he was probably on his way back from some mission.

"So what were you planning on doing when you stepped in front of your brother, gaki?" The shinobi asked with his eyebrow raised.

He had been approaching from the other end of the pier along the rooftops when he had seen the entire incident go down. He had seen the street clear out as two guys step out into the path of the brats.

The speed at which the girl moved in front of her brother had drawn his interest. While not quite a genin's speed, she was fast, much faster than most people that young suggesting talent or some sort of training.

However, if the two men wanted to be fuck faces that robbed brats that was not his problem. He was fucking tired and about to go on his merry way when he heard one of the thugs planning to sell the children which royally pissed him off. It was one thing to rob some brats out and about during the night; it was a hell of a different thing to sell them. He didn't have very many morals, but that was one line he would never cross.

He was about to step in when he had noticed that instead of giving up or trying to run that the girl had changed her stance balancing lightly on the balls of her toes and bringing her guard up in preparation to defend herself and her brother. That took some serious guts to decide to take on two grown men as a young child.

Impressed, he had decided that he would escort them to wherever they needed to go to after he got rid of the two lowlifes harassing them.

"To be honest, I was going to kick them both hard in the privates as Haku ran for the boat that we're leaving on before taking off towards the boat," Misaki said, obviously not about to tell a stranger, savior or not, about her kekkei genkai based back up plan.

The shinobi gave her an appraising glance. "Not bad, for a brat. Would've ended badly for you guys unless you have some sort of training though."

As they got nearer to the boat, Haku tugged on Misaki's sleeve and whispered something into in her ear to which she nodded.

When they stopped near the loading area for their boat, Misaki asked the shinobi if he could wait for a second before leaving.

Haku pulled out the baby blue handkerchief that Misaki had stitched a white snowflake onto for his recent birthday gift and wrapped some onigiri and mochi onto it. Turning to the waiting shinobi, Haku flushed as he shyly handed the bundle to him as Misaki and Haku both bowed deeply.

"Thank you very much for saving us Shinobi-san," Haku chirped out politely.

The shinobi took the handkerchief from Haku and thanked him gruffly.

About to leave, he paused at the glimpse of the dark undercurrents running rampant in both of their eyes that was not quite hidden by their surface emotions. Turning around he said, "I've seen the look in both of your guys' eyes before. You guys are running from something. I don't care what. Brat, you have talents and guts. I'm sure your brother does too. Ever thought of becoming a shinobi? I could use a recruit or two." He showed them a feral looking grin, "As my recruits, no one will mess with you guys. I can guarantee it. Think it through. This is a one-time offer."

Misaki was torn. She turned towards Haku and stared at him seeing indecision swirling in his eyes. He bit his lip before replying with a blinding smile, "Whatever you decide is best nee-chan. I trust you."

As her mind thought his offer over, the shinobi settled down on a nearby crate and took a small, tentative bite out of one of the onigiri before eagerly taking larger bites as Haku quietly talked to him.

The tickets were still safely in her boots. She and Haku were inches away from the ship that would take them on a journey towards a faraway and unknown village, one that was reputed as the most peaceful of all the hidden villages. The one her grandfather and mother had dreamed of making it to so many years ago.

But she didn't know how treacherous the journey would be. She still had no idea how they would make the journey from the port city to Konoha safely.

Also while she had read that they did take in immigrants and political refugees, it was all second hand information learned from books printed over four years ago. What if something had changed and they made it to Konoha only to be turned away at the gates. What would they do then?

Here, this shinobi that had already saved them was offering his protection and training.

She wondered, could they actually stay here and become shinobi of the nation that had ended their grandfather's life. She realized they could, Haku wouldn't be bothered by their grandfather's untimely end at Kiri's hands. Only she knew and for Haku's safety, she would endure anything.

Besides regardless of the reason, her grandfather had been deserting his village. According to the laws she had read during her lessons, any shinobi deserting their village became missing-nin to be hunted down.

But in a way, it almost felt disrespectful to their mother. While she didn't know her grandfather at all, her mother had obviously loved him deeply. Even many years after his passing anytime her mother had mentioned him, her eyes expressed a mixture of unrelenting grief and love. She had been greatly pained by Misaki's joking comment to become a Kiri shinobi and some of her last words had been to urge them to leave the country.

But her mother was dead and Misaki had to make their safety a priority. Examining all possibilities and conclusions reminded Misaki of something that made the decision easier. Turning to him, he finished the rest of the rice ball in his hand as he waited for her to speak.

"Thank you very much for your generous offer but Haku and I already have tickets to leave in a few minutes. Thank you for all of your help," Misaki said to the kind stranger who has spared time to save two children when everyone else had been content to turn a blind eye.

"Meh, I can't blame you guys for wanting to head to Fire Country. It is definitely a lot kinder to orphaned children than here. A word of advice though, if you can afford it I would spend some of the cash from those thugs to hire a squad to escort you to wherever you plan on ending up. It kinder than Water Country, but there are still a lot of lowlifes like those two eager to take advantage of little brats but more dangerous than those nincompoops."

"How would we get into contact with someone to hire us a squad?" Misaki eagerly asked as this could be the solution to the treacherous journey from Gamatori to Konoha.

The shinobi's eyebrow rose so high that it was hidden by his headband as he whistled. "Man you guys are from a pretty small town huh. Most large cities will have a messenger building. For a small fee, you can have them send your request to the closest hidden village, which in Fire country would be Konoha. Good luck."

Watching them safely climb aboard the ship, the shinobi saw the brats turn one last time to smile brightly at him and enthusiastically wave goodbye to him. He raised his hand in a salute and gave them a nod before shunshining away as the ship left the harbor.

He leapt across the rooftops of various buildings to his hotel for the night as he fondly regarded the snowflake embroidered handkerchief filled with homemade onigiri and mochi dangling from his hand. They had been the first brats not instantly scared of him when they saw him.

Too bad they hadn't chosen to come with him; her cooking was pretty good for a kid. As for that mochi, well he had poked it as he was talking to the younger brat and from the texture he couldn't wait to take a bite out of one of those. He hadn't had home-cooked anything in… well... in forever.

After a long and much needed shower, he flopped onto his bed enjoy his fresh and as he had suspected, delicious mochi. As he enjoyed the mochi, their two enthusiastic and innocent smiles beaming at him as they waved goodbye pops into his mind. The money the brats had gotten from those cowards was more than enough to hire a genin squad with plenty left over to help them survive for bit. They seemed fairly resourceful and smart. They should be fine.

For the first time in his life, he actually hoped he never had to cross weapons with someone. With the older brat's talent or training and their situation, there was a possibility that he might run across those two kids in the battlefield one day if they choose to become ninja. It would be a damn shame to have to kill the ballsy and talented older brat or the kind and sweet younger brat.

Thinking of the way he had met them, it reminded him there were two thugs he would derive great pleasure in hunting down tomorrow before he left for Kiri. He hadn't forgotten about them. He had some stress leftover from his mission and what better way to assuage his stress than ridding the world of two scumbags like that.

A scowl crossed his face at the thought of those lowlifes. Most people didn't make the leap from robbing people to selling kids on the black market in a few split seconds. It was obvious that they had sold children before. In fact, he wouldn't be surprised if their original intent was to snatch them to sell them not just rob them. But their attempts on the two gakis would be their last.

After watching the shinobi teleport away and seeing Shikogawa fade into the distance from the window of their new home for the next two to four weeks, Misaki gazed at the brightly shining stars twinkling merrily over their ex-homeland and hoped that she had made the right decision as sleep continued to evade her.

Despite his gruff demeanor and scary visage, the shinobi had seemed kind and like he had some kind of morals. He could have easily just passed by or ignored their plight but chose not to.

Glancing over at Haku who had fallen asleep as soon as his exhausted body laid down on the bed, her resolve strengthened.

Earlier when she was wavering between which decision would be the best and safest, she had realized if they took the man's offer that they would never be allowed to leave mist permanently. They would be hunted down like their grandfather had been before them if they ever tried to leave. Taking his offer would have meant they would always have to live in fear of being discovered.

While the shinobi who had saved them had been gruff but kind, she didn't know how he would've reacted to their secret if he ever found out. She did not want to repeat nor for Haku to repeat either of the vicious cycles that had broken her family into smithereens. Neither the path of trying to escape Water Country as a missing-nin that had taken her grandfather away from her mother nor the path of staying and eventually being betrayed by people close to them that had taken their mother from them was anything she wanted for Haku or herself.

A week and a half later, Haku awoke in the middle of the night and reached for his stuffed bear, koji. Hugging him, he stretched as he rolled leisurely across his bed only to fall off in a loud thump. Opening his eyes and feeling the gentle sway of the ship as it traversed the ocean, he remembered that he was no longer in his family's home on Taku.

He squeezed Koji tightly before climbing back into bed. He had for a second forgotten the horrifying events that transpired a week and a half ago. Seeing his sister's sleep fogged eyes peering at him from the top bunk, he reassured her with a gentle smile that he's okay.

As he hears her settle back into sleep, he counted out a minute or two before he curled up underneath his blanket and released the tears gathered in his eyes and quietly sobbed. He had been trying to put on a brave face for his sister since they had boarded the ship.

Even though he thought the ship was cool, it wasn't close to being enough to keep his mind off the fact that Kaa-chan was dead. It was always lingering there in the back of his mind. That he would never see her face light up as she smiled at him nor hear her soft giggles at his antics. Never smell the delicious aroma of her cooking wafting out of the house as he came back from playing by the river or the forest.

As he sobbed, despite Misaki-nee's presence in the room he had never felt so alone. But maybe that was what he deserved; it was **his** fault Misaki-nee no longer had a mom or da-Yoshirou. Misaki-nee had told him that Yoshirou didn't deserve the title of father from them and Haku agreed. He didn't even want to think about that-

Haku was startled by the sound of someone climbing onto his bed. He had thought his sister had gone back to sleep.

"Haku-kun, I could hear you crying. It's okay to cry. Let it all out." His sister held him in her warm arms and gently rubbed calming circles on his back.

Haku unable to take the shame of his actions, he cried out, "But you've been trying to be so strong for me. I can tell. I can be strong for you too. This is my entire fault anyways!"

His sister looked him straight in the eye. "My strength stems from my desire to protect you; I'm your older sister. It's my responsibility to take care of you. You can rely on me, please don't bottle up everything. Do not ever think it is your fault. It is Yoshirou's fault for being so weak and choosing his fear over the family that loved him, it is the villagers' fault for trying to harm an innocent woman and child whose only crimes were being born with a gift, and even partially our beloved mother's fault for not telling you about it. Never yours, you are an innocent child Haku. How could you have known? In fact, I had discovered it the same way you had. The only difference is that no one witnessed it. So I'm also at fault for not telling you as well. The only thing I can say is that I had promised kaa-chan not to say anything but I'm still so sorry Haku. Besides, don't you remember what she said to you? She said she wanted you to promise her that you wouldn't blame yourself. Her heart would break if she thought you blamed yourself."

Seeing some of the guilt clear from his face but some still lingering, Misaki scooted right next to Haku and covered them with the blanket as they both stared out the window at the stars shining in the distance. Feeling Haku shift restlessly, Misaki asked, "Would it help you sleep if I told you a bedtime story?"

Feeling Haku nod, Misaki began to tell him the story about a young couple Pottu Yuri, Pottu Ichiro, and their young toddler Haru. She tells Haku how Yuri, Ichiro, and Haru were living peacefully surrounded by their best friends before the powerful, evil sorcerer heard a prophecy that within Haru resided great power. Power that would one day save the world from Orochi's scaly clutches.

After getting to the part about where the evil sorcerer Orochi bursted into their home to kill Haru because Haru had the possibility of getting stronger than him and how Yuri and Ichiro died protecting Haru, she turned to Haku and asked, "Do you think it is Haru's fault that Yuri and Ichiro died?"

"Of course not, he was only two. What was he going to do as a baby? It is definitely Orochi's fault!" Haku exclaimed passionately.

"I agree with you one hundred percent. You were only four, what were you going to do as a young child. It is definitely not your fault."

Haku blinked once or twice as Misaki's words sunk in before turning his head to face his sister. Awestruck and almost reverently he said, "Misaki-nee I love you, you're the best nee-chan ever. You made up that story right now just to comfort me, huh. I kind of get what you mean now…" Seeing his sister's frown in concern and about to open her mouth to protest, he hastily added, "I think you're right, it wasn't my fault."

Peering into Haku's eyes and seeing that he truly does believe that it wasn't his fault, she winked at Haku and smiled mysteriously before saying in a sing songy voice, "Maybe I did make up the story, maybe I didn't and these people actually exist in some universe far away. You'll never know. Now get to sleep squirt, you need your rest if you're ever going to grow taller."

The first laugh he has had in a week and half tumbled out of Haku's lips before he retorted, "Okayyyy if you say so. I mean Haru is pretty much almost my name but with a different syllable. Okay, I'll go to sleep now just so one day I can be wayyy taller than you someday! Thanks again nee-chan."

As Haku's breathing evened out, Misaki was glad that Harry's story was able to help Haku. For a four year old, Haku was surprisingly resilient. She doesn't even want to think about how she would've handled it as Draco when she had been four.

She figured while Harry generally had hated people telling his private stories and secrets, if he were here that he wouldn't have minded in this case. Haku had been so solemn and sad this past week and half. He would probably always be haunted by the fact that their mother died protecting them but at least now he longer blamed himself.

Now he could truly begin the healing process. She had tried everything she could to keep his mind off of what had happened since they had left Taku but nothing had managed to penetrate the cloud of guilt or misery surrounding him. Even her best attempts to comfort him or coax a smile or laugh out of him had been falling flat. As Misaki drifted off to sleep as well she was pleasantly surprised when instead of the nightmares she had been expecting, she was visited by pleasant dreams of her past life.


	5. The End of the Road

A/N: As people probably guessed, Zabuza is the shinobi that saved them. For those of you wondering why they never exchanged names, Misaki and Haku do not give him their names because they don't know if someone from Taku might have spread their details and how they have kekkei genkai to anyone. They want to disappear and leave no tracks. As for Zabuza has no reason to give his name to people who don't introduce themselves to him.

To Shae Vizla, thank you for your review and kind words! From what I saw of Haku's mom in the series, it seemed like she like the type of person to love her son deeply and was probably caught off guard or unable to defend them when the mob converged on them. In the canon, it pissed me off Haku's dad turned on his wife and child like that so in a way I wanted Haku's mom to avenge herself and Haku if that makes any sense.

To Shadow of God, thank you for the review and I'm glad you're enjoying my story thus far. I felt like I couldn't let them leave without at least meeting Zabuza as he and Haku had cared deeply for each other and had such a deep impact on each other's lives in the canon.

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 **Chapter 5: The End of the Road**

The next morning Haku came up to Misaki and asked her if she would tell him another story to which Misaki obliged. Gradually after the morning after her talk with Haku, Misaki could start to see a difference. While still grieving for Tonomi's death, he seemed lighter.

It had felt nice telling someone about her past even if in the form of a bedtime story. She still thought about her past from time to time. It was impossible not to. She had lived that life for twenty four years. Despite how grim the story she had told Haku had been, it made her think about all the wonderful things in the magical world.

If there was one person on this earth that Misaki wished she could share all of these wonderful things in the magical world with, it was Haku. So she did in the only way she could, even though it was in the form of fictional stories all in one fantastical world filled with magic.

Sharing it with someone else and actually talking to them about it felt different from just thinking about it. It made her feel a little happier knowing that she wasn't the only person on this world who knew about that world or its people. Even if Haku only knew them as fairytales, it eased an ache that she had not even realized was there.

She obviously had to change the names a bit but other than that she decided to tell Haku the unadulterated truth. Despite the fact he was only a four year old; children's tales in this world were much more realistic here than in her old world. It wasn't uncommon for stories to speak of mature topics such as death or large scale battles probably in an effort to desensitize possible ninja recruits.

It felt good to see Haku's eyes light up, to hear him laugh, or smile as she shared what he thought were fairy tales of magic.

Other than one really bad storm that had lasted a whole day, they had been lucky enough to have beautiful weather and clear skies. While the journey ended up being longer than two weeks due being blown off course by the storm, the eighteen day journey had passed quickly.

When they were a couple hours away from the shores of Fire Country, Haku and Misaki stood at the railings of the ship and watched the sun slowly illuminate the sky coloring the fluffy clouds in shades of pastel pink and light gold with hints of baby blue sky peeking in between the clouds. They enjoyed the sunrise as they looked back across the ocean towards the direction of the land that had once been their homeland and said their final goodbyes.

As the sun bathed everything in a golden light, Misaki and Haku realized this was it. They had made it safely to fire country where they would hopefully be able to live their lives free of the fear of being prosecuted for their kekkei genkai and could live happily. Now they just needed to make their way to Konoha.

She noticed a kind sailor, who had tried cheering Haku up by teaching him various nautical knots and things about sailing, was on the deck a few paces away. Closing the distance, she asked him if he could draw a map to the closest messenger building for her and a decent hotel.

He responded, "There is only one. I can draw you a map to the messenger building but I don't know much about hotels and such. This is only my second trip here and most of the places we sailors like to stay at are not suitable for kids. You'll have better luck asking for information about hotels at the messenger building." He drew out a rough map on the paper she gave him. "When you exit the boat, keep walking straight down the pier until you hit a set of three fountains in the middle of a pavilion. At the fountains, make a right and then it will be on your left side after a few shops."

She thanked him and pocketed the map. She and Haku then headded back into their room for the last time to finish packing their stuff. She wasn't sure how much money they needed but she figured they at least needed enough for a hotel room and food. She took the money she figured they would need and split it into both hers and Haku's backpacks; she piled the rest of the stuff back into the storage seal.

"Haku listen carefully, when we get into Gamatori, it is a huge port city. It's easily twenty times the size of our village. You must hold my hand at all times. Don't wander off; scream if anyone tries to do anything to you. However if we do get separated for any reason, we will meet at the set of three fountains."

After making sure Haku comprehended how important it was to not get separated, Misaki wrapped the storage scroll to her chest with gauze and slipped her shirt and jacket over it before helping Haku with his jacket and backpack.

Misaki and Haku arrived outside the messenger building which was a lot bigger than Misaki had expected. She had thought it would be like a small post office or something similar.

After they walked in, Misaki noticed an overhanging sign with mission requests and an arrow on it. Following the arrow, they made their way to the appropriate line. As they stood in line, Misaki could see a few closed doors along a wall in front of them.

After a two hour wait, they were shown into a room with two couches facing each other with a coffee table in between them. The middle-aged man seated on one of the couches smiled at them as he motioned for them to sit on the couch across from him.

"Hello, this is Gamatori's mission request section. Do you know how this process works?" The man, Ito-san, asked.

"No, I haven't requested a mission before. I would like a squad to escort my brother and me to Konoha."

He explained the mission ranking system before giving them an in depth explanation. "In your guys' case relevant information would be stuff like if you need protection from certain people, what location you want to be escorted to, and stuff like that. I can give you an estimate but you won't know the exact price until the shinobi arrive with the official mission scroll which will have the Hokage's official stamp. Your team can carry your supplies for you but you are expected to have your own supplies for the journey. You can always stop along the way to get supplies or refill but you will probably get the best prices here. Don't feel shy about asking the team escorting you to help them with things if you need it. They are there to assist you as best as they can within reason. One thing, do not lie about the mission parameters. Doing so can result in danger to the team with you or yourselves."

"We're not on the run from anyone. We're two orphans from Water country looking to apply for Fire country citizenship and live in Konoha. We're not used to travelling long distances nor do we have horses, sorry if this sounds weird but as we are small children are they willing to carry us while travelling?" Misaki asked.

The man chuckled good-naturedly before he said, "Actually it's not too uncommon for people to ask if their children can be carried while travelling long distances. This would qualify as a c-ranked mission slated for a genin team and their sensei. It will cost somewhere around 35000 ryo and team will arrive in anywhere from five to seven days due to how far we are from Konoha. Your journey to Konoha will take anywhere from approximately one to two weeks. You are held accountable to these terms once we send in the request via messenger hawk. Let us know your hotel name so we can tell the shinobi where to find you."

As she had gotten 62,000 ryo from the two thugs that had attempted to rob them in Shikogawa so 35000 yen was no sweat off her back. She was about to sign the contract as Hisakawa Misaki when she paused.

Hisakawa Misaki stopped existing the day that man had turned on his family. Hating that it was still her legal name, she resolved to change it to Yuki as soon as possible before she scribbled Hisakawa Misaki in kanji across the contract.

After signing she asked about nearby safe, child-friendly hotels and was directed to one across the street with vacancies. Entering the hotel, she informed the receptionist that they would like to pay on a day to day basis before taking the key and heading to their room.

As they entered the room, Haku ran and took a flying leap onto his bed before sighing in contentment. As much fun as the boat was, it was nice to be on a real bed after so long.

Misaki contemplated doing the same thing as she looked at the other full bed before deciding that having a long relaxing bath triumphs anything else. While the ship had working plumbing on it, the bathroom attached to the room had been small and cramped.

After she helped Haku bathe, she ran a bath for herself. After luxuriating in the steamy lavender-scented water until the water turned tepid, Misaki dried up and headed out of the bathroom.

Joining Haku by their room window to look out at the city, she was struck by the stark differences between Suzu and Gamatori. They were both thriving port cities but covered by the ever present mist and signs of poverty peeking out at every corner, Suzu had seemed much gloomier.

Two days after arriving in Gamatori, Misaki was surprised to hear a knock at their hotel room door. She hadn't ordered any room service nor was she expecting any visitors. Opening the door slightly, a hotel staff member bowed his head in greeting and informed her that her shinobi escort was waiting in the lobby. Suspicious, she motioned for Haku to remain in the room and told him that if she was not back in five minutes to make his way to the mission request station as she locked the door before heading down to the lobby.

Instead of the kids and the adult she was expecting, she saw three older teenagers or young adults with Konoha headbands waiting in the lobby. She hadn't expected the age difference between genin and their sensei to be so small. While one of the shinobi was dressed… rather oddly, she relaxed at the sight of the Konoha headbands.

The oddly dressed shinobi blinded her with a giant, shiny teeth filled-grin and thumbs up as he boomed, "Hello! You must be our youthful client, Hisakawa-chan! I am Maito Gai," before motioning energetically to the shinobi on his right and left he introduced them as he handed her the mission scroll. "This is Shiranui Genma and the shinobi to my left is Ebisu."

Perusing the mission scroll, she noted that the price is 35,000 ryo before rolling the scroll back up. Noticing them looking around for Haku, she bowed politely and she said, "Please call me Misaki not Hisakawa. I had my brother, Haku, stay in our room to finish packing. I wasn't expecting your guys' arrival until a few days from now so we need to pack and then to pick up supplies before we leave."

Misaki watched as Gai's eyes burn with an almost unholy gleam as he exclaimed, "YOSH! Such a polite young blossom! Thank you for the Honor of using your first name. I shall get you and your youthful brother to Konoha safely or I will do five-hundred laps around on my hands!"

Dazed look on Misaki's face, she started to back away slowly from the slightly insane shinobi. Gemna smiled knowingly at her, "Don't worry about Gai, he's just a little exuberant. Your brother and you are in safe hands. He is a jonin, Ebisu is a chunin, and I am a tokubetsu jonin."

Processing his statement, Misaki relaxed and stopped backing away before quirking an eyebrow. "Not that I'm complaining about stronger protection, but I was informed that I would be escorted by a genin team and their jonin sensei. Also how long is the journey to Konoha going to take?"

"This city is was on our route back home, so you get the protection of three elite ninja for the price of a genin team. That depends on you guys. If you want to walk, probably eight or nine days, if you don't care about being carried, then three days to four days." The shinobi responded as he fiddled with the toothpick hanging out of his mouth.

It's easy to make the decision between the options of three to four days and eight or nine days on the road especially as she had been planning on asking the shinobi to carry them anyways. Misaki told the shinobi they didn't mind being carried before excusing herself and heading back to the room.

Unlocking the door, she saw that during the time she had been gone Haku had packed everything back into their storage scroll and had neatly packed their backpacks. Misaki smiled widely at him before picking him up and swirling him around as she hugged him.

"Those were our escorts. We're finally going to Konoha." Upon hearing her words, Haku's eyes gleamed with excitement.

Thirty minutes later, they had paid the shinobi and were standing on a hill on the outside of Gamatori's city limits with supplies stocked for the journey ahead of them and ready to leave.

Committing the view of the sparkling blue waters stretching from the sandy shores of the city to the horizon to their memories, Haku's right hand grasped Misaki's hand tightly as they shared a moment of silence for all that had happened in the past three weeks.

They both spent a few minutes enjoying the last view of the ocean that they may have for a while before heading back to the shinobi waiting for them a few feet away.

Not wanting Haku to be infected by whatever weirdness that exuded out of Gai, Misaki clambered onto his proffered back as Haku did the same to Ebisu's back.

As they made their way past the forest-filled countryside of Fire country, Misaki was surprised by the speed they're running at.

Mainly by how slow it was. It was definitely faster than Misaki and civilians could run and they were making good time but after seeing the speeds at which their savior in Suzu had moved with, she had expected shinobi to be much faster.

After a few hours Misaki was unable to deny her curiosity any longer. The three shinobi escorting them had been open about answering their questions so she asked, "Maito-san, I'm curious is this the fastest you can run?" not expecting the shinobi carrying her to turn to look at her nor for her question to illicit choking sounds from the shinobi carrying Haku and gales of laughter from the other.

Gai turned his head towards hers and with the most serious expression she had seen on his face so far he asked, "Do you get motion sickness and do you like speed?"

After answering that neither she nor Haku get motion sickness and that the faster the more fun, his eyes began to sparkle radiantly and his smile beamed so brightly it almost left white spots in her vision as the sunglass wearing shinobi carry Haku let out a groan at her response.

"YOSH! Misaki-chan, as I thought, the POWER OF YOUTH burns brightly in you! How could I deny such YOUTH? I shall show you the true speed of a shinobi! Hold on tightly!" He shouted excitedly with streams of joyous tears falling from his eyes before he took off and the passing scenery became a blur.

Misaki let out of whoop of unadulterated joy and happy squeals as the jonin raced forward. Hearing the happy sounds, the jonin increased his speed even more. She could faintly hear Haku let out similar sounds of joy as the ninja raced through the trees.

She had loved flying on her broom in her past life and she had missed the feeling of the wind rushing past her face and the exhilaration that came with racing past everything at incredible speeds. She had never thought that she would get to experience something similar to that again.

A feeling of happiness settled over her as they passed through the countryside moving at incredible speeds. It was like the wind was brushing all of the sadness and anguish of the past few weeks off her person.

When the shinobi stopped to make camp, she felt some of the sadness settle back into place but she felt mostly rejuvenated. Looking at Haku animatedly talking to Genma as the shinobi set up Misaki and Haku's tent, she felt like it had erased some of Haku's sadness too or at least temporarily suppressed it. Turning towards Gai, she expressed her appreciation and thanks.

"No need to thank me, Misaki-chan! It brings me great joy to see the flames of youth burning in other people! Besides travelling at those speeds cuts the duration of our trip by half, by tomorrow we will be in Konoha."

At the mention of Konoha, Misaki questioned, "Is it difficult to gain citizenship of Fire Country? Is there heavy prejudice towards foreigners?" seeing Gai shake his head for both questions, Misaki paused for a second to fortify herself before adding, "What about towards kekkei genkai users?"

Despite the fact that Misaki was talking to Gai and the other two shinobi were off readying the camp, all three shinobi heard her question. In an instant, the dots clicked for the three shinobi escorting the two children.

Upon meeting the children, the haunted look in their eyes and the melancholy aura had pointed to them being orphaned. The lack of gauntness to their cheeks and the excellent condition of their clothes had indicated that it was a recent event. Most children lacked the necessarily knowledge and skills to keep their clothes in that kind of condition, especially ones as young as them.

But that hadn't explained why two young children had decided to leave whichever town they hailed from and make the perilous journey from Water to Fire at such a young age. The voyage itself wasn't cheap nor was hiring a team to escort them to Konoha, which suggested they had some money. Money that would last a lot longer in Water country than in Fire country. They had just assumed that the children wanted to settle in a more peaceful nation.

But now it all made sense. The way the sister had gazed suspiciously at them when they met, trying to gauge their trustworthiness. Sure they had clients that were suspicious when they showed up early or with a different team composition than had been recommended, but usually the clients that were that cautious weren't seven year old girls.

They could tell she was lying when she had stated that her brother was in the room packing but everything else she had said had been true so they figured maybe he was taking a shit or something else she hadn't wanted to say. She had most likely been suspicious of them and had him waiting to run if they weren't who they said they were.

"No, Konoha greatly respects kekkei genkai. Most of our great clans have some kind of kekkei genkai. In fact, the only difference having a kekkei genkai makes is that after of having your case reviewed by the shinobi run immigration board, you probably will be talked to about possible academy registration." Gai responded earnestly before excitedly asking, "What kind of kekkei genkai do you have?"

Seeing the excitement in Gai's face eased Misaki. Giving him a tentative smile, she asked,"Haku and I can control water and ice. Would you like to see it?" At his nod, Misaki formed a cylindrical staff of ice in her hand and handed it to Gai.

Twirling the staff in his hands, he asked if he could test its durability. After Misaki agreed, Gai twirled the staff once more in his hand before using it to land a moderately strong hit on the tree next to him. As he inspected the staff, he marveled at the fact that it doesn't have a single scratch or crack on it before handing it back.

In the early morning during the last watch, Gai thought about Misaki-chan's demonstration last night. He thought about how quickly she had formed the staff and the amount of control she was able to exhibit over her kekkei genkai at such a young age.

Her intelligence and talent with her kekkei genkai plus the way she moved suggesting either rudimentary training in the basics or innate grace highlighted her promise as a shinobi. Gai mentally noted that it was not a possibility that she would be approached about joining the academy but a certainty.

Hours later as the shinobi walked them through the giant gates of Konoha to the immigration building, Haku and Misaki both marveled at the size of the city. From what they could see, it was easily double that of Gamatori which was already close to fifteen times larger than their home village.

Both of them were so immersed by the bustling marketplace that they failed to notice the shinobi escorting them stop and ended up almost bumping into them. Seeing that they were at the immigration building, Misaki and Haku thank them for all of their help and bid them goodbye before stepping in.

They waited for around thirty minutes before a kindly older kunoichi took Haku into a room for questioning while a slightly younger kunoichi took Misaki into a separate room for questioning.

Over the next two and a half hours, the woman questioned her on everything under the sun as she jotted down notes on a sheaf of papers. She grilled her for her reasons for wanting to become a fire country, why she left water country, her parents, and even hypothetical questions like what she would do if a certain thing happened etc.

Misaki was about to ask for a short break or something when the lady stamped her application sheet and finally pronounced that Misaki was now a probationary citizen of Fire Country.

Happy that this interrogation was over, Misaki felt her joy fade when the woman wryly told her that she was not done yet. She then proceeded to tell Misaki all the stipulations of being a probationary citizen as well approached her about joining the academy and the pros of joining it.

Three hours and a half after she first entered the room, Misaki staggered out of it as Yuki Misaki, a new probationary citizen of Konoha, with a packet about the academy in her hand feeling emotionally exhausted and slightly exposed. That kunoichi probably knew more about her now than even Haku did. She entered the lobby and was mystified to see Haku happily licking a lollipop looking as fresh as a daisy.

"Nee-chan, what took you so long? I've been waiting for over two whole hours!"

Misaki thought to herself, ah now that makes sense, they probably had only lightly questioned Haku as he was four whereas she being the older sibling got more in depth questioning. Well better her than him. She smiled lightly at him before shrugging in response as she grabbed his hand and led him to the hotel Gemna had recommended to them.

Later that night after she put Haku to bed with a bedtime story, she felt all the tension that had formed that horrible afternoon so many weeks ago drain out of her body. They had made it to Konoha. A place that so far had seemed to be all it was touted to be.

The three shinobi that had escorted them here had been kind. Gai had even told Misaki and Haku that if they had any more questions or needed help that they would be able to find him through asking the shinobi at the mission assignment building.

After dropping off their stuff at the hotel earlier that evening, they had gone out to explore Konoha. It was peaceful and everyone so far had seemed so friendly. Children run around the streets playing carefree all around the marketplace and shopkeepers smile at the sight not watch their hands.

Konoha lacked the stench of poverty and danger that Suzu and all major cities in Water oozed. Only time would tell if she had truly made the right decision, but as of right now Misaki felt like she had.

Looking at the packet of papers that the kunoichi had handed her, she browsed through the information on the academy. Hearing about the aid programs they had for academy students from the kunoichi earlier had sealed the deal. She had agreed on the spot and filled out the necessary paper work for the program. She wouldn't start getting the stipend until academy started in a month from now.

Konoha provided a stipend for orphaned academy students, one where fifty percent was free grant money and the other fifty percent was garnished from your future wages, which would cover living costs as well as equipment costs.

The stipend plus their savings would be enough for both of them to live on until Misaki could do missions. Now that she didn't have to worry about money, she could relax. With that thought in mind, she finally headed to bed for the night.

Bright and early the next morning, Haku and Misaki set out to go apartment hunting. After explaining to the real estate agent that she was amenable to suggestions as long as it's a one to two bedroom apartment, the real estate agent they had been recommended started showing them a range of apartments immediately.

They didn't even get to the first one bedroom apartment. As they were walking closer to the apartment, Misaki immediately vetoed the apartment and they headed to the next. While it was cheapest in price at 8000 ryo a month, it was right on the outskirts of the red light district.

The second apartment was much better than the first. It was a two bedroom apartment in a reasonable residential area with a nice park. However, the rent for it was 15500 ryo a month which was almost half of what they paid for their mission.

Despite how peaceful the neighborhood was, Misaki knows that it was not something they could swing. Plus it was pretty far from where the academy was located.

The third apartment was perfect. It was a small two bedroom apartment in a good area located about a fifteen minute walk from the academy. The two bedrooms were decent sized and it had a reasonable bathroom. Its rent was a great price too at 12000 ryo a month. Misaki hesitated as she had been thinking of getting a one bedroom apartment to save money before the realtor explained that most one bedrooms in a reasonable area would only be a little less.

The realtor explained that there was nothing wrong with this two bedroom apartment. It was just that sometimes it was hard to fill vacancies in a mostly shinobi complex as most civilians prefer not to live near shinobi and that one bedroom apartments in shinobi complexes were snapped up fast by shinobi. After hearing her ask about distance to the academy at the second apartment, he had figured she wouldn't be bothered by living among shinobi.

In an hour the entire process of signing the contract, paying first month payment, paying the deposit, and doing the walkthrough was done. Misaki got the keys from her new landlord before measuring each room and heading out to buy furniture and necessities for their new home.

After a long day of shopping, Misaki and Haku enjoyed their first meal in the new home. Though they were eating take out from a random restaurant as they sat on the floor of their new home with no furniture, Misaki was brimming with satisfaction. It was small but it was theirs. Their furniture would be delivered tomorrow and they were no longer homeless so she was no longer as worried for the future. They had made it safely to Konoha.

After washing up they snuggled into their respective sleeping bags for hopefully the last time for a while and they shared bliss-filled smiles before Misaki and Haku both drifted off to sleep.


	6. Surprises and Recommendations

A/N: To Shae Vizla, thank you for the review. I actually started this fic with how Haku had said to Naruto that in another life that he would have liked to be friends in mind. It made me think of how sad haku's short life had been and how kind of a person he was despite having such a hard life. So I plan on Haku and Naruto meeting eventually. But Konoha's a big city so who knows when that will happen.

To Shadow of God, I think the academy seems to range about four years but can be less for accelerated students or during wartime. In the canon, Sasuke joins at the age of eight and graduates at 12 (i think) whereas someone like his brother joined at six and graduated at 8. I haven't mentioned the kyuubi because Misaki wouldn't have access to this information yet but yes it has already attacked and been sealed. Your questions about which era this is will be answered in this chapter :) As for Naruto, I plan on them meeting but not for a while. I'm trying to stick close to the canon ages of the characters. I don't plan on having Misaki making instant friends with the entire main cast, maybe just a few select individuals that she takes a liking too. Between training, missions, and raising Haku she will be fairly busy. Thanks for the suggestions; it would be interesting to have Misaki be ambivalent towards Naruto. Draco has shown that he places his loved ones' safety above all else in the Harry Potter series so we'll see how it turns out when they do meet, especially if Naruto presence seems even slightly harmful to Haku.

To Gremlin Jack, thanks for the review. Sorry that you feel that they got out of Kiri a bit too easily. I had debated on having them run into Yagura's shinobi but decided not to for several reasons. I couldn't think of a feasible way for Misaki and Haku to be able to escape from trained shinobi. While Yagura probably does have shinobi patrolling Suzu, I felt like they had no reason to suspect two young kids as kekkei genkai users. Even if they would have suspected them, Misaki and Haru are in and out of Suzu fast. They only went into the travel agency and then to the boat so they were fortunate enough not run into any other trouble.

 **Chapter 6: Surprises and Recommendations**

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For the first time in weeks, Misaki was awoken by the sound of an alarm clock. Groaning she opened one eye to look at the time and saw it was already 7:15. Turning to Haku, she saw that he had managed to ignore the shrill beeping and continued sleeping peacefully. Definitely feeling envious that Haku could sleep through this racket, the corners of Misaki's lips turned upwards as she pounced and tickled Haku awake.

As the last of Haku's giggles died off, they ate a quick breakfast before clearing all of their stuff to the side so the movers could arrange the furniture properly. Misaki and Haku had purchased a small dining room table, a really comfy plush three seater couch, a bookcase, beds for each of them, desks for each of them, and a small dresser for each bedroom.

When Misaki opened the door to her apartment to greet the movers and saw the cheerful face of a jonin sensei and three decidedly not cheerful looking genins, she suddenly had a foreboding feeling about her future missions as a genin.

After the movers made quick work of arranging the furniture, Haku and Misaki started to unpack the kitchen supplies they had bought. As they put away the stuff, each pot or dish reminded Misaki that she had never actually cooked before.

Sure, she had helped her mom make simple dishes like onigiri or omurice but her mom did most the actual cooking. Misaki mostly kept her company while keeping an eye on Haku or helped with some of the prep.

She definitely didn't cook in her past life as well, she loved to eat delicious food not cook it. The only thing she could actually do was bake.

Some of her favorite childhood memories were of when she and Narcissa would sneak into the manor's kitchen at night and bake some kind of pastry or treat together. Baking had been her mother's guilty pleasure and Misaki had a gigantic sweet tooth so they were constantly baking different sweets. Even while she had been at Hogwarts, her mother had sent weekly care packages with her wild creations and they would write letters back and forth discussing the hits and misses.

So she was slightly nervous about having to cook for herself and Haku. Hell she hadn't even made a pot of rice before. But she was an adult… kind of. How hard could cooking be? Misaki was sure between her twenty plus years of life experience and her skill in potions, she would be able to figure it out.

Three days later, Misaki set down her chopsticks after another bland dinner as she told Haku to grab his jacket. At the bookstore, Misaki fought down an embarrassed flush when Haku's face lit up at seeing her purchase a cookbook. Seeing her flush, Haku tried to reassure her. "Nee-chan, it's okay. You're not that bad of a cook. Your rice is really good! You haven't made crunchy rice since the first time!" which only made her flush more as the bookstore owner released chortles of amusement.

Her cooking wasn't terrible, it was just not… great. It was a lot harder than she thought it would be. Their mother had made it seem so easy.

After purchasing and using the recipes and instructions from the cookbook, her cooking had improved immensely. While it was still far from to how delicious everything Tonomi touched had turned out, it was no longer anywhere close to bland, unpalatable food.

Time passed by quickly and before Misaki knew it, it was the morning of her first day at the academy and Haku's first day at a civilian preschool in their neighborhood. Misaki walked Haku to the preschool and greeted his teacher for the year, a kindly older man called Tadashi-sensei, before walking towards the academy.

Misaki leisurely strolled towards the academy, she wasn't late and she had already explored what she could of the academy yesterday after the entrance ceremony. Attending her first entrance ceremony had been pretty interesting.

When she arrived, she had been told which class she was in and then met her classmates and homeroom teacher. Then she and Haku caught their first glimpse of their Hokage, the Sandaime Hokage, as he gave a passionate speech about something called the will of Fire in the front of the academy.

After the speech, the teachers took Misaki and the rest of the students back to their classrooms to quickly hand out information about the school year before dismissing them for the day. She and Haku had scoped out the training grounds, classrooms, and lunchroom before leaving for lunch.

Reaching her classroom she sat down at her assigned seat and examined her classmates as she waited for the teacher to arrive. For children, they sure were a strange looking bunch. There were some with what appears to be tattoos on their faces, a kid wearing sunglasses indoors, and even a girl with a puppy sitting next to her desk. Misaki was surprised that the girl was allowed to keep her puppy in class with her but it was none of her business.

As she gazed at her classmates, Misaki wasn't sure how she was even going to relate to them. They all looked so young. She knew she looked young as well but while physically seven, she sure as hell wasn't mentally seven. She didn't even know what a normal seven or eight year old would do for fun.

Though in terms of formal education she had only attended school during her preteen and teenage years and the academy was bound to be vastly different from Hogwarts, Misaki wasn't worried. She had excelled at Hogwarts and if not for Hermione, she would've been ranked at the very top of their class.

Misaki had already decided that she would be at the top percentile of her class but she wasn't going to bother with the number one position. After feeling the bitter sting of being second place every year of Hogwarts no matter what she did, she didn't feel like doing the same to a child when she had an unfair advantage.

Misaki found that her reading/writing, mathematics, and geography class bored her as she already knew most if not all of the material. Projectile training and taijutsu class, which were before lunch, were fairly interesting. She hadn't thrown any ninja weapons before so she figured she probably needed a lot of practice. But her excellent hand eye coordination plus the physical training she had been doing for the past two years assisted her in getting the hang of it fast.

She was at a forty percent accuracy rate already and it was surprising better than the majority of her classmates. By accuracy, she meant forty percent of the time she was able to hit the target not that forty percent of the time she was able to hit a bulls eye. There were some kids that seemed to be well practiced with kunai and shuriken throwing sitting at around fifty to seventy percent accuracy. But the majority of the class were hitting between zero and three out of every ten targets.

Taijutsu class was Misaki favorite class so far. The class started out with Hakka-sensei leading them through a series of stretches and warmups before walking everyone over to an empty training ground and having everyone write their names on slips of paper that she put into a bag. She shook the bag before drawing out two slips.

"Today, I want to gauge where everyone's taijutsu is at. We're going to have one on one matches. Anyone who gets knocked out of bounds is out and the winner goes onto the next round. If you wish to forfeit you may do so as well. First up are Inuzuka Hana and Suzuki Yuka."

Hana, the girl with the puppy and facial tattoos, didn't hesitate to lunge at Yuka sweeping the startled girl's feet from underneath her. In the split the second Yuka laid frozen on the ground Hana grabbed her by her shirt and tossed her outside of the boundaries of the arena ending the match in less than a minute.

Hakka-sensei wrote something down on her clipboard before calling out the next two names. As the fights go on, it was pretty obvious who had training and who hadn't. The kids with training showed little to no hesitation once the fight started while those who haven't tended to either freeze or were too slow to defeat those with training. It seemed like clan kids for the most part were sweeping the impromptu tournament.

More and more kids sparred until there were four kids left that need to spar and Misaki was the last girl left. Their class has 10 girls and 18 boys. Her name and Akimichi Takuya's name got called, so they walked up to center of the clearing. As she was passing the two boys that had yet to be called, she heard one of them say, "Akimichi-san's lucky, he gets an easy fight. Bet she doesn't even last a minute."

Annoyed, Misaki arrived at the center more determined to win than ever if only so that she could go against the boy that said that and show him who's an easy fight. She had been watching her classmates spar and she was definitely the fastest by a wide margin. At this age, there was very little difference in strength between girls and boys.

As Hakka signaled for Takuya and the Misaki girl to enter the makeshift arena, she knows that the Kobayashi kid was wrong about it being an easy fight. The way the girl moved suggested at least a few years of physically conditioning. Hakka could tell when they did the warmup that she would be quick and agile opponent.

In fact she wouldn't be surprised if the girl swept the tournament. Not only was she the fastest but Hakka had noticed during the morning's lessons that she was highly intelligent. After twenty years of teaching at the Academy, Hakka could tell instantly when any of her young students started to drift off. Usually though she doesn't have to worry about kids drifting off until after the first week let alone the first day unless they were a Nara.

About ten minutes into her first grammar lesson she had noticed the Yuki girl's eyes glaze over with inattention. Annoyed at someone already zoning out so early in the year especially a student she had high hopes for, she had called on her to answer a question only to be surprised when she answered correctly as if she had actually been paying attention.

This process repeated several times throughout her Japanese and mathematics lessons with the same results. Flagging her as a possible prodigy on her file, she decided to keep a closer eye on her during the upcoming taijutsu class.

When the kids completed their warmup laps, Misaki had finished near the top of the pack with the rest of the clan kids with no shortness of breath. The way she had assessed her classmates running alongside her and adjusted her speed to be at the upper end of the pack but a few paces behind the leaders probably meant she was hiding her true speed either to conserve her energy for the spars or saving her speed as an ace in the hole.

As Hakka-sensei yelled start, Takuya and Misaki exchanged friendly smiles and cordial bows. Takuya seemed like a nice kid. As they stood there, Misaki could hear that same classmate who had talked about Takuya having an easy fight whisper about how she looked like a little doll and there was no way she could beat an Akimichi, which infuriated her further.

Right away, Takuya ran toward Misaki and threw a right cross. One that Misaki dodged with ease. This continued on for about a minute as she led him closer to boundaries of the ring. Once they're both relatively near to the edge as she dodged his next punch she used her left hand to grab onto his right wrist and uses the momentum from Takuya's punch to throw him bodily out of the boundaries. After Hakka-sensei called the match, Misaki offered a hand up to Takuya. He smiled and used it to stand up before heading to sit in the group of kids that had not won their match.

There was a moment of stunned silence as her fellow classmates absorbed what had occurred in the one minute match. Despite Misaki's much smaller size, once the match started it had been obvious that she had the advantage. Watching Kobayashi also win his fight, she hoped she got to fight him during the next round.

Unfortunately she did not get to face him during the second round. Hilariously, he got his ass handed to him by the Inuzuka girl though. After beating him, the girl shot her tongue out at him and smiled playfully at Misaki to which Misaki beamed back. Obviously, she had heard his comment about girls being an easy fight too.

Misaki's second match was against a girl named Matsumoto Kaori. The girl hadn't been paying attention to fights after she had won her own fight. She had chosen to sit talking to her friend who had lost the first match to Hana. As Kaori attempted to look down at Misaki, well as much as an eight year old could manage to, it made Misaki scoff and show her what a real look of condescension looked like.

After a laughable attempt at intimidation with a glare that wouldn't scare kittens, Misaki decided not to take the high road. It would be hilarious to troll Kaori, plus knocking her down a peg or two will only benefit her in the end. After hearing that it was a tournament style brawl, she should've paid closer attention to her future opponents. While Kaori hadn't watched any of the other fights, she had certainly watched Kaori's. With an impish grin stretching across her face, Misaki gleefully waited for Hakka-sensei to start the match.

Once it started, Misaki immediately rushed Kaori at half of her fastest speed and shoved her so hard that she flew over the boundary of the ring. Kaori sat there on the ground stunned for a few moments blinking as she processed that she lost the match before she even had a chance to move.

She scowled heavily at Misaki before sitting next to her friend and rapidly whispering to her as she shot dark glares in Misaki's direction. Quickest fight so far? Check. Most hilarious thing that happened during taijutsu class so far? Also check. The girl learning not to shoot dirty glares that she couldn't cash? Not checked.

After Misaki's match, Hana sat next to her and said, "Awesome fight. Don't mind Kaori. She's kind of a brat. My cousin is friends with her brother and she's used to having things go her way. I'm Inuzuka Hana nice to meet you."

"Thanks, your fight was pretty cool too. I'm glad you showed Kobayashi just how easy a fight against a girl would be. My name is Yuki Misaki and likewise." Misaki replied as she stretched out her legs. Talking to Hana as Misaki pet her puppy was nice. Misaki had been worried that other girls her age would want to talk about dolls and girly things like Pansy had wanted to as a child. But Hana was more interested in talking about the fights or her three puppies than talking about anything like that, which worked just fine with Misaki.

Uchiha Ren won his fight. As did Hyuuga Shiori, Yamanaka Shun, Aburame Masa, and Fukazawa Yusuke. In the third round, Hana knocked out Fukazawa, Uchiha knocked out Aburame, and Hyuuga knocked out Yamanaka.

Misaki was lucky enough to not have to fight during the third round, so she versus Hana was the first match of the semi-finals. Hana already had a slightly more athletic build than Misaki's willowy frame. Hana hit hard for her age and was faster than the majority of their classmates. But Misaki still beat her in terms of speed, which enabled Misaki to win their spar.

Ren knocked out Shiori which left Misaki versus Ren for the final match of the tournament. After observing Ren's previous matches, Misaki knew that he was fast and agile but as he was not even close to her speed so she was not worried. None of her classmates seemed like they had even been training physically for long. Even the clan kids seemed like they had started in the recent months.

There was ungainliness to their movements like they were not quite sure of the next step when they sparred. They landed good hits but did not follow up with another hit. They didn't have the fluidity that comes from prolonged physical training, sparring, and repeating kata movements like she did. Her mother had begun teaching her the katas for a taijutsu style that her father had started teaching her as a young girl. The taijutsu style relied on agility and speed over brute force.

Ren assessed his opponent as they walked towards the center of the sparring area. He had seen how smart his classmate was from their morning class but with her diminutive size, he had figured taijutsu wouldn't be her strong suit. When she had first stepped into the ring against Takuya, Ren had also thought that it would be an easy fight for Takuya. After seeing her easily beat Takuya, he knew that a civilian like Kaori didn't stand a chance but he had been surprised to see her beat Hana.

He knew that the Inuzuka clan began drilling their kids in agility and speed up to six months before they started the academy. As their heiress, they would have started Hana even earlier than that. Hana's full speed hadn't even fazed Misaki; she had been able to defeat her with ease. He would've had trouble defeating Hana, let alone that easily. He had expected it to either be him, Hana, Shiori, or the other hyuuga, Keita, in the finals not him versus someone that had yet to exert much effort to win any of her matches.

Watching her fight eerily reminded him of watching his cousin Itachi beat older clansmen in spars. Though Itachi was a year younger than him at the age of seven, he was already starting his last year of the academy. Like him, she fought with frightening efficiency. As the entire class was beginners, most of their taijutsu was slightly sloppy and inefficient but she and Itachi both fought as if they had already calculated five steps ahead.

After Hakka-sensei started the match, Ren watched the calm sky-blue eyes of his classmate as she waited for him to make the first move. Ren charged her as fast as he could but it was nowhere near fast enough. She pushed his fist out the way and delivered a punishing blow with her other fist.

Before he could recover from her punch, she roundhouse kicked him in the chest causing him to stumble to the ground. He barely managed to scramble out of the way of her next kick and she hadn't even gone to the speed that she had used to defeat Hana yet.

Blocking and dodging her punches and kicks to the best of his ability, he noticed he was slowly being driven towards the boundaries as Takuya had been but there was nothing he could do about it. A few minutes later, he stepped out of bounds and Hakka-sensei called the match as she furiously jotted down more notes on her clipboard.

Making the seal of reconciliation with Misaki, he mused that at least he lasted the longest against her but that his parents weren't going to be too happy about him losing his match to an unknown civilian. The results of the first spar of the year usually gave bragging rights to parents among the clans. His parents had been expecting him to sweep the competition.

From the way Hakka-sensei had watched all of Misaki's fights intently, Ren knew that she was probably going to bump Misaki up to a higher class, which makes him feel slightly better about losing. Misaki had answered all the questions sensei had asked her in class correctly even though sitting directly next to her, he could've sworn that she was not paying attention most of the times she had been called on.

Hakka gathered all of her first year students outside for chakra control classes after lunch. She had been very impressed by Misaki's taijutsu. If Misaki showed similar aptitude at controlling her charka, she was going to give Misaki the cumulative academy test they gave to students to gauge if they should skip ahead. It tested students on their written skills, comprehension skills, mathematics, geography, and analytical skills through hypothetical questions and situations.

She gave her students the instruction for the leaf chakra exercise and she wasn't too surprised to see Misaki stick the leaf to her forehead on her first attempt. In her file it stated she had been training with her mother for the past two to three years.

Hakka asked the other first year sensei who was teaching his class about chakra control to watch over her class before motioning for Misaki to follow her. She peeked her head into Akira-sensei's fourth year classroom, handed him the C.A.S.T test, and had Misaki sit in an empty seat in the front before returning to her class. Fourth years have genjutsu training after lunch so she knew that Akira would be free to explain and supervise Misaki taking the C.A.S.T., cumulative academic skill test.

After Akira-sensei explained the purpose of the test, Misaki was conflicted. On one hand, the school's academic classes were boring and so far Misaki knew all of the material. Judging from the taijutsu class before lunch, she was also way ahead of her classmates on that front. On the other hand if she took this test and was bumped up a few grades, she would have less time to improve her skills before becoming a genin.

The speed Gai had shown her on their journey was exhilarating but also a prime example of how far a gap there was between her abilities and other ninja out there. If someone of her savior's or gai's caliber decided to come after her, she was dead. Though she would have her jonin sensei to protect her, it was still a scary thought. She knew that she needed to graduate so she could start doing mission but money wasn't that tight and she might be better off giving herself more time.

Looking down at the test sitting innocently on the table in front of her, Misaki decided to answer as best as she could. She could always refuse to be bumped up ahead worst case scenario but at least this way she had options. Thirty-five minutes later, she handed the completed test to Akira-sensei and he told her to rejoin her class in the field.

Akira sat at his desk and began to grade the C.A.S.T test. Halfway through the test, he was astounded. He had seen her breeze through the test but he hadn't expected these results. Misaki had one hundred percent of the questions right on her written, comprehension, mathematics portions. Even her analytical section was near perfect. The only thing that made them not perfect was it was very clear through her answers that she had quite strong issues with killing but he would be far more concerned if a seven year old had no issues with killing.

Her Fire country geography portion was a bit spotty but that was to be expected from someone who had just recently moved here. Hakka-sensei's assessment was right. Misaki definitely did not belong with the first year academy students. The only other people he had seen with such high results on their C.A.S.T. tests were Hatake Kakashi and Uchiha Itachi, both of whom were genius prodigies.

Later during the last period of the day, Hakka told her students to start reading the first twenty shinobi rules as she examined the graded C.A.S.T that Akira-sensei had dropped off on her desk. She had been right about her assessment on Misaki's prodigy status.

With Misaki's test scores, chakra control, and taijutsu skills, she would be the top of the class even in Akira sensei's class with students in their final year. Her chakra control is excellent especially considering the large stores of chakra she has and while her taijutsu skills would probably no longer be at the top of her class, she wouldn't be at the bottom of her new class. She would be in between the middle and top of the pack depending on how fast she truly is but she would have a year to improve her taijutsu before graduating.

After school ended, she took Misaki aside and told her to come to class twenty minutes early tomorrow to discuss the results of her test before heading to the Hokage's office. In the case of any child being bumped up more than a year in the Academy, it needed the approval of the Hokage. After being told by his secretary to go straight in, Hakka placed Misaki's file with the completed C.A.S.T and her notes on his desk as the Hokage motioned for her to sit in one of the armchairs in front of his desk.

"Ah the young Yuki clan girl, one of the shinobi who had escorted her here mentioned she had potential." He puffed on his pipe as he read through the academy teacher's notes and the C.A.S.T. He turned his attention back towards the academy teacher. "Are you sure she's truly ready to be a fourth year?"

"Yes, Hokage-sama. She is highly intelligent and displays extreme boredom in all of her academic classes. She is well above all of her peers and I fear that leaving her in the first year or even putting her in the second year or third year classes will waste her potential. Her test scores show she is well beyond academy level mathematics, comprehension, and analytics."

As he thought of the various prodigies that had passed through the Academy Halls, it prompted Hiruzen to ask, "And of her social skills? By placing her in this year's graduating class, we are depriving her of the time to build the necessary social skills and the chance to connect with her peers. Many prodigies end up becoming isolated and lone wolves."

Hakka grinned excitedly in response. "That's the thing; she already displays highly developed social skills. She's polite with her peers and has no issue conversing with them if need be. She's already started developing a comradery with Inuzuka Hana and reacted with mischief not anger when one of the civilian students treated her with condescension. She was gracious to her defeated opponents as well. While I've only been observing her for a day, I do think that she will be able to adapt easily and not have issues on the social front."

"Very well, Hakka-san I give my approval to pump Yuki Misaki to this year's graduating class. However, as always it is her choice whether or not she wants to. She is still very young and if she deems herself unready, then she can remain in her class or be bumped up to the second or third year if that is her wish."

The next morning, Misaki dropped Haku off at the preschool early and made her way to the academy. All last night she had thought about which would be the better option and still hadn't come to a decision. There were pros and cons to either decision. She entered the classroom still undecided as her sensei motioned for her to sit down.

Hakka told Misaki the results of her C.A.S.T. and informed her that she wanted to bump Misaki up to this year's graduating class. She also told Misaki that it was completely Misaki's decision but that she recommended for her to do it and told her why she recommended it by sharing the same reasons she had told the Hokage. Seeing Misaki's eyes wavering with indecision, she urged the girl to ask her any questions she might have.

"I do have one thing I'm concerned about… by skipping three years of schooling, won't I be way behind in terms of taijutsu, ninjutsu, and other shinobi skills? What if I move to the graduating class and at the end of the year find I'm not ready?"

"Actually, we don't begin teaching students anything beyond physical conditioning until the middle of the second year so you won't be too behind as I would already gauge you at around a third year possibly fourth year student's taijutsu levels. As you have tested out of academy levels of mathematics, analytics, and comprehension skills, you do have the option of opting out of your first two academic class periods. Usually clan kids that manage to show high proficiency in those areas take advantage of that option and use it for clan training. If you can manage to find a shinobi willing to help you during some of those periods it will help but otherwise you can use those two hours to train yourself. As for ninjutsu and other shinobi skills, most of that is actually taught in towards the very end of the third year and during the final year of the academy. You're a very quick study, I'm sure you will have no issues catching up. As for your other concern, you don't have to take the graduation exam at that point if you don't feel ready."

After listening to Hakka-sensei's words, she figured she could at least give it a shot. The first day of classes yesterday had nearly bored Misaki to tears. She gave her agreement to Hakka-sensei who then led to her to classroom she had taken the test in yesterday and reintroduced her to her new homeroom teacher.

A few minutes after sitting at her new seat, her classmates began to trickle in. As her new twelve year old classmates began to go to their assigned seats, Misaki could see them all shoot her curious glances out the corner of their eyes as they sat down. After watching preteen after preteen enter the class, she was surprised to see a small pale boy with black hair and dark obsidian eyes make his way into the class and towards her. As he took the seat next to her, she realized he was around her age.

Akira-sensei asked Misaki stand up and introduce herself to the class. As she was introducing herself to the class, she could feel her neighbor's gaze still boring into her. He had been staring at her since he walked in and it almost felt like he was trying to decipher and uncover every facet of her existence without needing to say a word. It was a little unnerving to say the least. Haku had told her before and Misaki knew that she could stare pretty intensely too when she was trying to figure things out as well but she was not an actual seven year old. With this kid it was au natural.

The titles genius or prodigy had been tossed around a few times by Hakka-sensei but Misaki didn't consider herself a genius. She had always been very intellectually gifted in her past life and now but she's didn't think she's a legitimate genius like her new classmate. She was just a highly intelligent girl with the advantage of an adult mind and prodigious talent at the shinobi arts.

As she sat back down into her seats, she made notes of how different these classmates were from the day before. During the introductions they had done during the entrance ceremony, most of her eight year old classmates had looked upon their new classmates with the excitement to meet new people in their eyes and smiles on their lips. Aside from the size difference, her new classmates' expressions had ranged from calculating to curious to indecipherable expressions. As she was thinking about the differences, Akira-sensei called out Uchiha Itachi, her new classmate's name, off of the attendance list allowing her to learn the name of the boy who had been staring at her.

The morning academic classes were more advanced than they had been in her old class the day before but still easy for Misaki. It was not until the mid-morning taijutsu classes that Misaki really noticed the difference between first and fourth years. First off instead of just one teacher, there were two teachers supervising the thirty children in the class. After the warmup, the teacher paired them up into groups of two with the instructions to spar.

Misaki got paired up with an Akimichi boy named Taro and she could immediately notice the difference between him and Takuya. Though both Akimichis, his taijutsu form flowed smoothly and lacked jerky movements and indecisive pauses. While still not faster than she was, there wasn't a huge speed gap like there had been between her and Takuya.

He was not pushing her to the limits of her speed but there was a definite strength difference between them. As the spar continued on, he only managed to land a glancing blow here or there compared to her many hits but even the glancing blows he landed were quite hard. Too many solidly connecting hits from him and she probably will be down for the count. After ten minutes of sparring, Akira-sensei told them to take a break and have some water.

Taro returned with two cups of water just as Misaki was about to get up and go get a cup of water. He handed one to her. "Good spar; you can call me Taro no need to be formal with me. You're pretty good at taijutsu. I'm guessing you must be the girl my cousin Takuya mentioned yesterday. He had said one of his nicer female classmates danced circles around him and had been taken out of chakra control classes to take the C.A.S.T test. I was expecting you to be fast but not that fast."

"Thanks, call me Misaki as well then. It was a good spar, you hit really hard." Misaki said as she took the cup of water gratefully before continuing wryly, "I'll definitely be feeling the bruises tomorrow from that last punch to the ribs I didn't manage to block."

Misaki and Taro continued discussing the events of their spar as they enjoyed the refreshing, cold water. Misaki was about to ask him what the deal with the intense Uchiha kid was when Akira-sensei called an end to their break and told them to switch partners. Taijutsu class continued in this ten minute spar with five minute break format until the end.

Misaki ended up being partnered with a total of four different classmates by the end of the class but none as genial or as talented at taijutsu as Taro had been. At the end of the class, Misaki was exhausted but glad she had not been paired with Itachi or the Hyuga whose first name she couldn't remember. She had seen a few snippets of their spar and it had been intense. Both boys were very fast and had very fluid taijutsu. She could tell the older Hyuga had more strength to his blows but he had been unable to land very many blows on Itachi, who had been faster and more agile then him. Strangely enough, the Hyuga boy had seemed way outclassed by his much younger classmate.

She was planning on spending her lunch with Hana, when to her dismay she found out that all four years of the academy did not share lunch times. The first and second year academy students had the same lunchtime and the third and fourth year academy students had a different lunchtime. She had been hoping to see Hana and meet the second of her three puppies today. Hana had explained the first day that she actually had three puppies but could only keep one at a time with her while she was at the Academy as having three unruly puppies during class would be too distracting.

Bummed and not feeling like joining Taro and his friends for a game of something called ninja tag, she climbed up a tree and sat down on a wide branch only to almost fall off of the tree at the sight of sharp obsidian eyes staring back at her from an adjacent branch.

When Itachi had walked in class this morning, he had paused at the sight of someone his age sitting in the chair next to his. Even as she introduced herself to the class, though he knew it was rude Itachi continued to stare.

He had grown accustomed to his classmates dwarfing him in size from the previous year when he had tested into the third year class as a first year student. So he hadn't been prepared to see another person his age in his class. She looked so small and delicate, too young to be in this year's graduating class. As Akira-sensei began lecturing, Itachi wondered if that was how his classmates saw him as well.

During taijutsu class, he observed her fights when he could as he was curious to see how she will fare against their much older classmates. For her to test from the first year classes straight to the graduating class, she must be talented. While definitely nowhere near as strong as them, she utilized strategy and fast reactions to help her hold her own against them. She was almost as fast as him but not quite as agile. If her taijutsu was more refined and practiced, she could give him a run for his money.

During lunch he saw her look around for someone before her shoulders slightly drooped and she made her way over to his tree. He wondered how fast she would be able to climb the tree and if he should go find a different place to observe the playground from when she began to climb up the tree using no hands. Shocked by the fact that she was utilizing tree climbing, a skill even he had yet to learn; he remained frozen for the few seconds it took her to reach a branch near his and for her sky-blue eyes tp glance across the foliage to meet his eyes.

After a few seconds of awkward silence, Misaki was contemplating on leaving her intense genius of a classmate to his own devices when she spied hints of loneliness glimmering in his eyes and the book by his side. Shit. Misaki heaved a mental sigh and made herself comfortable on the branch.

In the years following the war, she had made amends to the golden trio and had struck up surprisingly strong friendships with Hermione and Harry. He and Ron had become civil enough but other than being chess buddies, they wouldn't call each other more than acquaintance friends. Once Misaki had gotten her bigoted head out of her ass though she had discovered that she and Hermione actually had a lot in common.

On a cold winter night after one too many firewhiskey shots, Hermione had drunkenly confided in her that as a child prodigy she had always been horribly lonely with only her books to keep her company. Adults never took her seriously because she was only a child and her peers alienated her because she was different and some felt uncomfortable by how intelligent she was plus she had been socially inept as well. Until she had met Harry and Ron, books had been her only constant companions.

Looking at the lonely and adult-like eyes of the Uchiha prodigy and thinking back on his interactions with his classmates, Misaki realized he was probably in the same boat that Hermione had been. While polite to him, most of his classmates looked at him with varying degrees of awe, envy, or even wariness.

Itachi knew his quiet and serious personality combined with his intelligence and talent unsettled some if not most of his classmates. When he first saw his new classmate this morning, he noticed that she had the same sharp gaze that he saw in the mirror every day. He had hoped that as fellow prodigies that they would be able to strike up some kind of friendship.

Before Akira-sensei took role, he had been about to introduce himself when he realized two things. One that he had been staring at her since he came in and two that she had been unnerved by said stare so he lost the nerve to introduce himself. So he was surprised when instead of climbing back down the tree as his other classmates would have done, the girl settled herself comfortably onto the branch next to him and introduced herself.

Itachi was even more surprised when after he introduced himself; she took a look at the book by his side and mentioned that she had enjoyed reading it before making inquiries about how he liked it so far. Most of his classmates wouldn't find a book about a peaceful utopia an interesting read so he was elated to find that not only was his new classmate a prodigy like him but she also shared a love of literature like him.

Misaki knew she made the right decision when the loneliness dissipated from Itachi's eyes as they lit up at her questions and overtures of friendship. He was soft spoken and on the quiet side but with his intelligence and insightfulness, he was definitely turning out to be more interesting to converse with than any other of her other classmates had turned out so far. Seeing the small smile gracing his young face as they walked back to class together, she was glad that she chose to stay in that tree instead of leaving.


	7. Secrets Revealed

To Shae Vizla, thanks for the review and I'm glad that you liked the recent chapter. Regarding Misaki and Itachi, they will end up being good friends. How good of friends, well only time will tell. Misaki had been worried about connecting to her much younger peers and Itachi is about as adult-like a child can get. She will be good for Itachi in the sense that she will help him feel more comfortable around his peers. But she is also going to be very between raising haku, taking care of herself, school work, training, etc so she won't have a lot of time to help too much with socializing.

To Moonlily13, thanks for the review :) sorry I should've been clearer but Minato is already dead. Even if he had still been alive, there isn't much as a seven year old that Misaki could've done to change or affect his fate. In the canon, the sealing of the kyuubi happened when Itachi was five. At point in the story, the sandaime is the hokage again. Naruto and the rest of the rookie nine are two years old, Itachi and Misaki are seven, and Haku is four. I haven't made a final decision on who Misaki will ends up with but Itachi is one of the options. As for the Uchiha massacre, I already have in mind what I want to do for regarding that. Misaki's presence will change things but I don't want to spoil it by typing it out here. If you would like hints or to know, I can always tell you via pm but I recommend waiting.

To Shadow of God, thank you again for the review. Misaki is not a genius but she is actually a prodigy. She has not had anyone to compare her progress to so she just hasn't quite realized it yet. I'm trying to not make Misaki too overpowered but in Harry Potter, Draco was noted to be a very talented and powerful wizard only second in brilliance to Hermione. With her intelligence, her past life's magic adding to her chakra pool and her talent she might just end up choosing to take the graduation test this year and graduating as she is already on par with this year's graduating class in some fields. Thanks for the reminder; I realize that there is no real gap in physical strength between men and women in the Naruto world but while Tonomi did start Misaki on physical conditioning, Misaki hasn't learned any chakra reinforcement yet and I'm basing the difference in strength purely on size and age difference. I'm writing off of the premise that before chakra enhancement other than some physical training there is probably little that very young children can do to augment their strength as muscles take years to build. As Taro had more years of physical training, he hits way harder than Misaki. I also had Hana hit harder than other children her age because as an Inuzuka she has had more physical conditioning then the rest of her classmates. Yeah, I have noticed that in some fan fics that some people seem to struggle with too young of children graduating.

To sweetandsimple1, thanks for the two awesome reviews :) I try to proofread my chapters to avoid grammatical errors but I'm sure I definitely missed some xD I'm glad you like my story though. They might meet in the future, but if they do it will be very far in the future. Also thanks for the suggestion, I had read somewhere that the crossover section is buggy so I decided to just post it under the regular Naruto section despite it being a crossover.

To the guest and visitor, thanks for the reviews! Glad that you guys enjoyed reading.

 **Chapter 7: Secrets Revealed**

Misaki watched as the minute hand of the clock slowly inched towards the number twelve. Although her first day in her new class was interesting, she couldn't wait for school to be over. After the bell rings, she was about to make her way out the door when Akira-sensei called her to his desk.

"Misaki-chan, with all the things going on earlier, I forgot to inform you but for second year students and above there is a mandatory hour long Kuniochi class for girls after school ends." He said apologetically. "I know you have a younger brother but I will go inform the preschool that he needs to stay with them for an additional hour. Their daycare services last until five o'clock. If you wish, you can write a note for me to give to him."

Disappointed that she had to wait another hour before picking up Haku, she quickly wrote out a note for Haku before making her way to her kunoichi class. Sitting at the edge of the room in the one of the last empty seats, Misaki expected to be bored as she had been in most of her academic classes.

To her surprise, she actually liked the kunoichi class and found it interesting. The kunoichi teaching the class, Rukia-sensei, was an easy-going woman in her early twenties. Rukia-sensei started off the class by reviewing fire country culture before teaching them the different meanings of flowers. After which she artfully arranges an amazing looking flower arrangement.

Misaki had always enjoyed learning new information and beautiful things so learning about the different aspects of fire country culture and the art of flower arranging was interesting to her. While she didn't plan on being an infiltration specialist, she could see how flower arranging would be useful in conveying hidden messages.

As she headed to Haku's preschool to pick him up, Misaki mused over the day's events. She would definitely need to practice her projectile throwing skills and taijutsu. Where her classmates the day before had been struggling to hit the targets, her current classmates had a sixty to ninety percent of hitting the target and a twenty to forty percent chance of hitting the bulls-eye. With a forty percent chance of hitting the targets and having yet to hit a bulls-eye at all, she was the worst at throwing shuriken or kunai in the class.

Her taijutsu wasn't actually behind her classmates but she was not at the top of the class like she would like to be. Hakka-sensei had mentioned that she could try getting another shinobi to assist her with her taijutsu and opt out of her first two morning classes but Misaki didn't even know who she would ask. Either way, Misaki had already told Akira-sensei that she would be opting out of the two morning academics classes as she had realized after her taijutsu and projectile throwing classes that she could definitely use the extra two hours of training.

Her mother had not taught her all the katas for whichever taijutsu style she had been teaching her, so she would have to learn the standard leaf taijutsu forms from scratch or learn to integrate them into her current style unless she could find a shinobi willing to help her with what she already knew.

Just before she reached Haku's preschool, Misaki passed by a horrible fashion catastrophe of an outfit on a mannequin of a boutique that reminded her of the overenthusiastic but kind shinobi that had brought them to Konoha. Gai-san had said to use the mission assignment desk to find him if they needed any help. While he might not have meant it in a teaching capacity, the worst he could do was say no and if he wasn't well versed in taijutsu then maybe he can recommend someone that would be willing to help her.

Arriving at the preschool, Misaki thanked Tadashi-sensei for watching Haku and then they left to make their way to the mission assignment desk. After reaching the front of the line, Misaki politely said, "Excuse me shinobi-san, but I was told by Maito Gai that if I need to reach him to ask someone at the mission assignment desk. Do you happen to know where he might be right now?"

After an incredulous look and double checking that she for sure meant Maito Gai, the shinobi directed her to try training ground 20. As she and Haku approached training ground 20, all they can see was glimpses of two blurs meeting and bouncing away. The blurs stopped fighting and Misaki was able to see that the two blurs that had been fighting were Gai-san and Genma-san.

"Misaki-chan and Haku-kun, how have you guys liked living in Konoha so far? I'm glad you decided to take me up on my offer for assistance and congratulations on joining the academy! How can I assist you in fanning your flames of youth today?" Gai announced in his nice guy pose with a blinding smile as Genma waved at them in greeting. Knowing that Misaki-nee wanted to talk to Gai about academy stuff, Haku ambled over to Genma and started chatting with him.

"Thanks Gai-san, actually I wanted to ask if you would be willing to give me any taijutsu tips or if you could direct me to someone who would be willing to or has time. I was bumped up to this year's graduating class and while I do know the beginnings of the style of taijutsu my mother had begun teaching me, I do not know any of the standard leaf style nor the rest of the katas for my mother's style. My sensei told me that if I could opt out of my two morning classes and I should try seeking help from a shinobi."

"I could see why that would be an issue. Incorporating two styles into one is a difficult endeavor for someone with little experience with taijutsu. I am honored by your youthful request and as a taijutsu master I would be well suited to help you in your endeavors. However as a jounin, I'm quite busy with missions so I wouldn't be able to help you every day or even set up a routine schedule. But I cannot ignore such a youthful quest to better oneself in taijutsu! So long as long as you promise to put the full force of your youth into learning taijutsu and if you train here at training ground 20 every day between the hours of eight and ten I will try to make it when I can. I will endeavor to make it at least twice a week or I will scale the Hokage Mountain using only my hands and the power of youth! YOSH! Now show me your katas so I can figure out how best to help you fan the flames of your youth!"

Misaki gratefully thanked Gai as Gemna muttered something that suspiciously sounds like good luck under his breath with a wicked smile on his face. Misaki went through the katas she knew as Gai watched and repeatedly made sounds of "hmm" and "I see".

"I do know a style that would be well suited for you. It is not the style that I personally use but I have mastered it to incorporated parts of it into my personal style. My own youthful style I am saving to teach my future apprentice and also it would require the student to focus completely on becoming a taijutsu master. It doesn't seem likely that you are planning on going that route." Seeing Misaki nod, Gai continued, "As I thought. Now I want to see where your endurance and speed is at before I decide on an exercise regimen I would like for you to do daily."

Gai evaluated her speed and endurance before telling her the exercise routine he wanted her complete daily. Misaki thanked him profusely for all his help before she and Haku left the two shinobi to their training. As she was leaving, Gai informed her that he would be free tomorrow morning so tomorrow he would start teaching her the beginning katas.

Weeks passed as Haku and Misaki both settled into a daily routine. In the mornings, Misaki prepared breakfast for them and packed them each a nutritious lunch before walking Haku to his preschool. After she dropped him off, she headed to training ground 20 where she did an hour of her daily physical exercises and then either practiced her throwing skills, her kata, or learned new katas from Gai-sensei. True to his word, they usually met up twice a week with the few exceptions when Gai couldn't make it due to missions.

Thanks to Gai's instructions, Misaki had improved her taijutsu, speed, and agility. The first exercise routine had definitely been very difficult to get accustomed to but after that Gai increased the amount of conditioning at a reasonable rate.

Misaki hadn't realized just how insane Gai was about physical conditioning until a few weeks into his tutelage when she had asked him what he did daily to keep in prime condition. The sheer amount of physical exercise he completed on a daily basis was unbelievable.

One morning after training, she complimented him on his teaching skills and asked if he planned on taking a genin team eventually. Not only did Gai plan on taking a genin team eventually, but he already has a "light" physical routine planned out.

After hearing the regimen he had planned out for them, she felt a twinge of pity for whichever genin team received him as a jonin sensei. He'd be an excellent sensei no doubt and whoever was selected as his genin team would vastly improve under his tutelage.

But getting used to his version of light exercise would take some time. Between that and his youthful personality they would be in for one hell of a ride. Thankfully, even as he increased her daily physical exercise routine it was intense but not near the insanity levels of the "light" regimen he had already prepared for his genin.

After her morning training sessions, Misaki then headed to the academy where she joined her class for projectile training. She had been improving her accuracy with shuriken and kunai and had finally reached the point where she wasn't extremely behind her classmates.

She was still near the bottom of the class rankings when it comes to throwing shuriken and kunai but now she wasn't the worst. She could now hit the target eighty percent of the time and a bulls-eye around twenty percent. Misaki had always been a perfectionist and never had been at the bottom of any class; so at times the slow rate of improvement frustrated her.

Taijutsu class on the other hand, was much more enjoyable for Misaki. On Monday and Wednesdays, the academy teachers taught everyone the standard leaf taijutsu katas. The other three days were usually spent sparring. Her taijutsu wasn't as fluid as her older classmates but she's faster than most of them so she used speed and strategy to win. Among her class, she held the top kunoichi spot in taijutsu but overall she's fourth in the class. Itachi was ranked first overall with Hyuuga Masahi in second place and hana's cousin Inuzuka Shogo in third place.

The formats they used to spar in Taijutsu class vary from one on one to tournament style to teams. Once the teachers even had them all fight at the same time to simulate what an actually battlefield with multiple opponents would feel like. Although chaotic, it was the most fun Misaki had had during school. During the beginning of the mass melee, some of her classmates grouped up to try taking out people in the top of their class taijutsu wise. Masashi declined to work with anyone else and got knocked out a quarter of the way through the battle. Itachi, Shogo, Taro, and she ended up teaming up together against the rest of the class and knocking everyone else out.

During the first few weeks of taijutsu class, Misaki had sparred with each of her classmates at least once with the exception of Itachi. She had even sparred against Hyuuga Masashi, the Hyuuga that she had witnessed Itachi sparring against the first day.

Sparring against Masashi had been an interesting experience. It is the first time she has sparred against an opponent with the same speed as her. It was a good spar and Misaki tried her best but was ultimately unable to beat him without having a speed advantage on her side. While they have the about the same speed, he is stronger than her and his taijutsu is like water in motion. It was obvious he was extremely well trained as he flowed from one move to another without any hesitation.

Fighting against Shogo similarly resulted in defeat. Misaki found that he was slightly faster than her and Masahi but he lacked the deadly grace inherent in Masashi's every move. While he lacks the grace and accuracy of Masashi, he made up for it in ferocity and the excellent teamwork he had with his puppy. Given a few years, Shogo and his dog would be a taijutsu force to be reckoned with.

About a month after the Academy's first day, Misaki finally got the chance to spar against Itachi. Even though she knew he was much better than her at taijutsu, she had been improving through her lessons with Gai and still wanted to gauge her skills against him. Plus even if it was a crushing defeat, it would be fun to spar against her friend.

Ten minutes later, Misaki lays on the ground exhausted. It wasn't quite a crushing defeat. She managed to land a few good hits on him but it was a pretty one-sided spar.

Itachi was by far the fastest and best taijutsu user in their grade. Like Masashi, he fought with no movement wasted and razor edge precision. However while Masashi was fairly predictable, Itachi was unpredictable. He had fast reaction times and made excellent split second decisions.

All in all she had actually yet to see something that Itachi had difficulty with. He excelled at taijutsu, projectile throwing, academics, tactics, and while she had yet to see how he did with genjutsu or ninjutsu she had no doubt that he would probably excel at those as well.

The only thing he seemed to struggle with was interacting with their peers. But in all fairness that could be due to their peers as well as him. Most of their classmates saw him as the Uchiha Prodigy or Uchiha Heir not Uchiha Itachi. After taking the time to get to know Itachi, he was still scarily intelligent but he was also kind and interesting to talk to.

Over the past few weeks of school, he had become friendly with Hana and Taro. Misaki had actually been surprised with how easily Taro conversed with Itachi. Then again she had never met someone as jovial and easy going as Akimichi Taro so she guesses that it wasn't too surprising.

After lunch, their class either worked on genjutsu or chakra control. During genjutsu class, they were taught the basic ways to identify and dispel a genjutsu. Genjutsu class was followed by a short thirty minute lesson on ninjutsu, which so far had covered the types of elemental chakra and review on hand seals. Though Misaki already knew henge and the replacement jutsu, the teachers had yet to teach any E-ranked jutsu. At the end of her day, Misaki attended kunoichi class before heading to pick up Haku from his preschool.

Misaki generally spent most of her time after school with Haku. Even though she was a pretty social person, at the moment she only has three very good friends, Itachi, Taro, and Hana, and a few school friends. Though Haku was an obedient and good child, taking care of herself and another kid was very time consuming. Between taking care of them, spending time with Haku, training, homework, and housework she quite frankly just didn't have the time for anyone or anything else.

Luckily she didn't worry about making time to hang out with Itachi after school because he was almost as busy as she was after school. Though he didn't have sole care of his younger brother like she did, his free time after school was limited. On the seldom times that he was free, they did grab sweets or train together but more often than not he was busy.

As the Uchiha clan heir, his father had a rigorous after school training schedule for him as well as multiple lessons ranging from diplomacy lessons to even tea ceremony lessons. She had once asked Itachi what lessons he takes after school and he had given her a dry look and had said the better question was what lessons I don't have to take after school.

Whereas she usually hung out with Itachi and Taro during school hours and didn't usually hang out with them after school, conversely it is the opposite with Hana. She did make time to hang out with Hana after school as they rarely saw each other during the academy. As a fourth year with mandatory kunoichi classes, she ended school an hour later than the first years so by the time she ended classes for the day, Hana was already gone. Besides even if Hana ended classes at the same time of her, before anything else she needed to pick up Haku.

Sometimes they caught glimpses of each other as they passed in the halls but other than an occasional wave and smile that was the limit of their interaction at school. Usually she hung out with Hana when Haku had a play date with one of his preschool friends or Haku came along with them when they hung out.

The first time Haku met Hana, Misaki found out that he had a pretty intense love of soft and fluffy animals. She had always known he liked animals from seeing him coo over the occasional cat or dog in the streets but when one of Hana's puppies gave him puppy kisses and lolls over onto his back for a belly rub, she could swear Haku literally had hearts in his eyes. It was simultaneously really adorable and slightly scary.

After that meeting, Hana with her puppies became one of Haku's favorite people to spend time with second only to Misaki herself. To Haku, even the friends he had made in preschool pale in comparison to the amazingness of Hana and her dogs. When Hana brought them to her house and introduced them her mother and brother, Haku was about two steps away from never wanting to leave Hana's clan compound.

One day as she was sitting on the porch at Hana's house watching Hana and Haku roughhouse with the Haimaru brothers, Tsume pulled her aside to talk to her.

"I know what you're doing is hard." Seeing the question in Misaki's eyes, Tsume gave an apologetic shrug as she motioned for Hana to bring Haku into the house. "Most shinobi and kunoichi are gossips. The one who processed your citizenship application is an incurable one with low alcohol tolerance."

Horrified, Misaki sat there numb and speechless as she realized the implications of Tsume's words.

"I'm not bringing this up to bring up bad memories. I'm just telling you that the information is out there. You deserve to know." Tsume placed a comforting hand on Misaki's frozen shoulder before fiercely saying, "All I can say is I'm sorry that you guys had to endure that from him. Pack should never turn on pack. When Kiba and Hana's father passed away and I had to raise them without him, it was a struggle even though I was an adult and I had a whole clan to help me. Raising a kid is hard, especially as a kid yourself. Your loyalty and dedication to your brother is commendable. I'm no good with flowery words and shit but basically if you need help just ask."

At Tsume's words and offer of help, Misaki burst into tears, the first tears she had cried since leaving Taku. At first she had held back her tears to be strong for Haku, but after a while all Misaki had felt when she thought about it was numbness.

When she had been interrogated by the immigration worker, she had relayed her story to her. But to the worker, her life had been a list of facts to be checked through for lies. She had understood knowing it was the kunoichi's job. Misaki had sat numbly in the metal chair across from kunoichi as she cross-examined and dissected Misaki's life. Not once had any words of sympathy spilled forth nor any comforting gestures but worse than the lack of sympathy or comforting gestures was that this woman spilled her secrets to strangers.

"Thank you for telling me and for your kind words. Most of all thank you for your offer. If there comes a time when I can help you, just ask. What did she reveal? Do many people know? I don't want to be surprised again later." Misaki said after she was finally able to stop crying.

"I hate to break it to you but most shinobi know. I don't know about civilians. Even before your past came out, you were the genius child prodigy suspected to be on par with one of the greatest Uchiha prodigies to be ever born. Even if you aren't or won't ever be on par with him, people think you have the potential to do so. People know that your father stabbed your mother before dying by her hands. They know that you are a young girl of only seven years of age who was resourceful enough to escape the bloody mists with her four year old brother before making the journey here. That's it. Unfortunately, you're infamous among the shinobi in Konoha right now, not even counting the fact that you guys are possibly two of the last remaining Yuki clan members."

Misaki processed Tsume's words before looking around and realizing that as she had been crying the sun had set. Thanking Tsume profusely before declining her offer for her and Haku to stay over, she collected Haku and they left for their apartment. Despite Tsume's kind offer, Misaki just wanted to be alone.

The next morning after crying her eyes out all night, Misaki felt emotionally drained but much better. She hadn't realized how tightly she had been wound until she had burst into tears at Hana's house. It was only after Tsume said pack doesn't do that to pack that she realized that she had never let go of the anger she had been holding in since she saw Yoshirou's face among the armed villagers. Her other parents who admittedly weren't "good" people had chosen to defy an insane, murderous dark lord risking their lives for their child's safety. Yoshirou had always preached about decency and family. Which made it even worse that he consciously chose to throw their family to the wolves. The bloody hypocrite. She had finally let go of her anger last night as it was holding her back from moving on. While she still had a little residual anger only time would be able to erase that.

About two months after the start of the Academy, Itachi approached his and Misaki's tree with a feeling of dread in the pit of his stomach. It was lunchtime and while normally he enjoyed the reprieve from training and the opportunity to converse with Misaki, today was not a normal day.

Yesterday when he had arrived home after eating dango, his mother had greeted him with a slightly perkier than normal smile before slyly asking about his day and if he did anything interesting after school. Itachi had given her a faintly curious glance before responding, "School was as usual, Okaa-san. After school, I stopped for a snack and then came home." Knowing something is up but not what, Itachi tried to change the subject. "How's Sasuke? Is he awake right now?"

"Oh? That snack wouldn't have happened to be dango, would it?" Mikoto asked innocently. As soon as his mother mentioned dango, Itachi froze and then flushed bright red. Crap, someone must've seen.

Seeing his blush, Mikoto continued with a playful grin on her face, "I just put Sasuke down for a nap but nice try. Yuna-oba told Shintaro-oji who told Shisui-kun who told me that she saw little Itachi-kun and a female friend having dango together. Of course I told Shisui-kun that it had to be a new friend because my precious little Itachi-kun would never hide a friend from his darling mother." She paused as her lips trembled and jewel-like tears shimmered in her eyes before turning to him, "You wouldn't hide a friend from your poor mother would you?"

Itachi gave up. He already knew that he cannot win against his mother and he knew what she wanted, so he just nodded. "Yes Okaa-san I will invite her over." Instantly the jewel-like tears that had been shimmering in her eyes disappeared and the mischievous grin reappeared as she cooed, "Why Itachi-kun, what a great suggestion! I can't wait to meet my baby's first female friend."

Itachi internally sighed. He hadn't told Shisui about his fledgling friendship with his classmate so he hadn't known that he had wanted to keep it a secret for a little while longer. He hadn't been trying to hide his friendship with Misaki per say, it was just that spending time with her was one of the few reprieves he had from his duty as the Uchiha heir. He could be himself around her. Their friendship was one of the few precious things that were truly just his.

He had known that once his parents learned of their friendship they would want to meet her and his family can be intimidating to say the least. Misaki didn't seem like she scared easily but she was his first friend outside of the clan and he had wanted to protect her from their scrutiny.

Aside from the intimidation factor, his father had been deeply interested by the fact that there was another prodigy his exact age in his class. He constantly asked what her ranking was compared to his and how she measured up to him as well as pushed him to make sure he stayed stronger than her. As soon as his father realized that his new friend was her, he was bound to want to see them spar, converse with her to gauge her intelligence, or to question her to determine her "worthiness".

Itachi knew that his father would be impressed by Misaki's talent and intelligence as well as cheered by the fact that she was nearly on par with but not stronger than him. In his father's eyes, he was mostly sure that he would approve of Misaki and think that she will make an excellent sparring partner. But he was not one hundred percent sure and he had also wanted to spare her the interrogation for as long as possible.

Itachi already knew that his mother would like Misaki. His only concern with his mother was whether or not she would bring out any of the huge albums of baby pictures that she is so fond of sharing with everyone.

Looking across to Misaki from where he was sitting on his normal branch, Itachi glumly asked, "Are you free today? My parents would like to meet you."

Misaki raised an incredulous eyebrow at the seriousness in his voice. "Sure. Is that why you walked over here like you were meeting your executioner?"

"Aa, it's just… if my father is there don't be surprised if he interrogates you." Itachi finished solemnly.

Misaki nodded before she processed Itachi's words. "Wait… what? Repeat that again?"

"Not literally interrogate you but my father is likely to question you. He has been extremely curious about the other prodigy in my class. I apologize in advance." Itachi repeated patiently as if what he was saying was nothing out of the ordinary.

Misaki blinked twice before confidently telling Itachi, "Don't worry about it. I'm not worried. If your father questions me, I'll answer any of his questions."

Afterschool, Misaki picked up Haku from the preschool before dropping him off at Hana's house. After Itachi had asked her to meet his parents, she asked Hana if she would mind babysitting Haku for bit.

At home Itachi wondered if perhaps he should have mentioned to Misaki that his dad was the police chief. She had said not to worry but he was worried. His father could be quite intimidating and he took a long time to warm up to people. Even if she impressed him, he still might not like her.

He glanced at the clock when suddenly he realized he didn't give Misaki directions to his house. It would make a terrible first impression if she was late. In a state of panic he raced out of his house. He was about to exit the clan compound in search of her when he passed by her standing at the entrance. Meeting her mirth-filled eyes, he blushed lightly in embarrassment knowing that she could tell he had just realized that he forgot to tell her his address and been about to race right past her.

As she greeted both of his parents respectfully and they all sat down for tea and snacks, he noticed the way she was carrying herself was slightly different than normal. Itachi had noticed that she usually had good posture and confidence but this was different. There was a certain elegance and artful grace to her movements and gestures that didn't stem solely from shinobi training. She was exuding a calm confidence without seeming overly arrogant. If Itachi didn't know better, he would think that she had been born and raised in a noble clan, trained from birth to deal with situations like these.

As her father not so subtly questioned Misaki, Itachi witnessed a different side to Misaki that he had never seen. He had always known that she had strong people skills as he had seen her soothe fellow classmates or stop arguments skillfully.

But never on this level, Misaki was very eloquent and a witty, skilled charmer. She was sweet without being a pushover, firm without being overly obstinate and bold without being disrespectful. Her answers and responses were just the right mix of politeness, charm, and silk covered steel.

She wasn't attempting to manipulate or lie to his parents but with how expertly she won them over, he wondered how skilled she was at manipulation. If she wasn't already, with her charisma she will be a very persuasive manipulator in the future which will be a very useful and deadly skill.

As his father laughed at something Misaki said, Itachi could see why she hadn't been worried earlier. Misaki was completely in her element as she flawlessly charmed both of his parents. Though someone who didn't know his father well might not be able to tell, Itachi could tell that he was not only impressed by Misaki but that he actually liked her.

After Misaki declined her parents' dinner invitation and she left to go pick up Haku, his father turned to him with one corner of his mouth still turned slightly up in a semblance of a smile before saying, "I approve. She's a very intelligent girl with a good head on her shoulders. She'll make a good sparring partner and friend. Bring her over for a spar sometime."

Hearing his father not only approved of Misaki as a good sparring partner but also as a friend, Itachi smiled happily as he played with Sasuke.

A few days after Misaki met his parents, it was Itachi's birthday. He had the birthday party his clan threw for him on his actual birthday, June 9th, so he didn't celebrate with his friends until the day after.

Misaki was throwing him a birthday party at his apartment and told him to bring whomever he wants. Now that the clan already knew about Misaki, Itachi decides to bring his best friend, Shisui, with him.

"So your friend really made a good impression on your parents. During your birthday party I heard Mikoto-oba gushing about how sweet, intelligent, and charming she is to Yuna-oba. I can't wait to meet the girl who befriended and melted your icy heart." Shisui teased as they made their way to Misaki's apartment.

Itachi shot Shisui a dark look. "Don't think I've forgotten that you're the one who told my mother. You know how she gets."

"Itachiii, how could I ignore the fact that you were on a cute play date with a classmate! Your mother would have found out from Yuna-oba eventually, I just happened to get delicious cookies and brownie points for telling her." Shisui whined as he placed an arm around Itachi's shoulders. "Besides it all turned out for the best, right? Since your parents like her, you can train or hangout with her during your free time if you want. Heck, didn't your father even tell you to invite her over for a spar? If Fugaku-oji is inviting someone over during your precious training time, he definitely likes them."

Itachi sighed. Shisui was right. "Just don't do anything embarrassing, ok?"

At Itachi's words, an evil grin appeared on Shisui's face. "AWWW, does Itachi-chan not want his big bad cousin to embarrass him in front of his little girlllll friend?"

"She's not my girlfriend." Itachi face palmed. He shouldn't have said anything. He knew how Shisui got.

"Maa, Itachi lighten up. I won't embarrass you on your birthday. After that, of course, as you know it is free game." Shisui replied as they reached the front door of Misaki's apartment and knocked.

Misaki opened her apartment door and Itachi introduced her to his cousin before they walked in. Hana, Taro, and Haku were already in the living room. Once everyone was seated at the table, Misaki brought out a pretty white cake with eight candles on it. After they sung Happy Birthday and Itachi blew out his candles, Misaki sliced a piece for Itachi. As she was about to cut another slice for the next person, Shisui craned his head curiously as he inspected the cake. "I think there's something wrong with the cake. There's a hole in the middle. Is there supposed to be a hole in the middle?"

"Of course there is a hole. It's a chiffon cake. There is always a hole in the middle, sometimes with cream inside." Misaki nonchalantly replied as she continued slicing pieces for everyone else.

"Huh, what's a chii fon cake? I've never heard of it before." Shisui replied as he continued to inspect the cake fascinated.

Misaki was momentarily speechless. Did they really not have chiffon cake in this world? Had the people of this world really not discovered nor been able to enjoy the deliciousness of a fresh moist and airy chiffon cake with fresh cream. Perhaps it was just that Itachi's cousin was an uncultured heathen. But looking around the room at the other confused faces, she realizes it wasn't so. "Hmm, must not be common in this area, I guess? Just try it, it is really good."

Itachi took a bite out of the chii fon cake and savored the rich chocolate flavor of the moist and light cake topped with delicious fresh cream. He was amazed how well the chii fon cake and fresh cream go together and how delicious the cake was as he made quick work of his slice. Looking around the room he saw similar expression of delight on everyone's faces. Taro had even already finished his slice and gotten a second one.

As Taro started on his second slice, he stopped eating long enough to ask, "Where did you buy this cake from? It's delicious. I have to tell my parents where to get it from."

Misaki was about to explain but Haku beat her to the punch as he chirped out, "That's silly, nee-chan didn't buy the cake. She made it!"

Four pairs of surprised eyes turned towards Misaki as her friends and Shisui complimented her baking skills.

"So is there really is supposed to be a hole in the chii fon cake? Or was it an accident? You know, if you don't end up being a ninja, I'd definitely suggest going into baking."

One of Misaki's eyes twitched at Shisui's comment as Itachi bopped his cousin on the head as he deadpanned, "Please excuse my cousin, he has always been a little weird."

She laughed at both of their comments and Shisui's pout before drawling out that yes, she was sure about the hole and that it was actually pronounced chiffon.

As Misaki was about to ask Itachi what he wanted to do, Shisui pulled out a deck of cards. With a mischievously smile on his face he asked, "Have any of you ever heard of a game called poker?"

An hour and a half later, only Shisui and Misaki were left in the poker game. They had been using candies and snacks as poker chips. Taro had chosen to scarf down his poker chips as he was playing so he had been the first person knocked out. Hana had been the second. As for Hana… Misaki felt that for her own sake she should probably never play poker for serious stakes. Between no poker face and a penchant for impulsive bets, Hana playing poker was a recipe for disaster. Like taro, Itachi had also chosen to eat his pile of "chips". He had eaten them at a slower rate and managed to win a few hands and replenish his stash. But as he was more interested in sampling and eating the various sweets and snacks than winning, he eventually got knocked out too.

Misaki had a large pile of "chips" and shisui currently had no chips left. There was an ace of hearts, a three of spades, an eight of clubs, and a pair of tens on the table. Shisui had gone all in on their current hand and Misaki had called his bet. Shisui flipped over his cards. "Read them and weep. Ten full house."

Seeing his cards, Misaki's poker face dissipated as a shit-eating grin appeared.

"An ace full house!? You started with pocket aces? So you had trips as soon as the flop came out… I can't believe I just lost in poker to a seven year old." Shisui wailed at the sight of her cards and Misaki's smug grin.

After the poker game, Hana and Taro headed home and it was just Shisui, Itachi, and Misaki. As they were about to leave, Misaki offered them the leftover cake to bring home to their family.

"Thank you, my parents will enjoy it. My brother does not like sweets though." At Misaki's appalled expression, Itachi continued in all seriousness, "I know, I don't understand it either. When I found out, for a split second I wondered how it's possible that we were related."

As Itachi headed home with Shisui, he couldn't shake the small smile that kept appearing on his face. Despite having much larger or grander birthday parties before, that was the first time someone outside the clan had thrown one for him. Celebrating his birthday surrounded by friends was a memory he would always cherish.


	8. To Graduation and Beyond

A/N: Just a general note to people reading my story: Thank you for reading and Happy Halloween! The academy is basically how a normal Japanese school year would be according to what I looked up.

To Shadow of God, thanks :) If I do pair Misaki, it's probably not going to be for a long time. As she was an adult in her past life, she is definitely not going to feel comfortable dating anyone until they're at least past eighteen and look adult-like. By the time Misaki is in her late teens and early twenties, arc wise where the story will be she might not even have time for romance. To be honest, I have not decided what I'm going to do in regards to parings and all that stuff but I will take your opinion into consideration. Either way though romance isn't going anyone's raison d'etre but I don't think it will be realistic if there's absolutely no romance at all ever. Shinobi seem to live fairly short lives and I can't imagine that all of them would choose to go through their lives sans romantic attachments. Like how obito chose to love Rin, Yugato and Hayate dating, Sakura & ino's crushes on Sasuke etc. That being said, I'm also not going to pair off everyone with someone. I might not even pair Misaki off at all until the end. If I do pair her with someone as plot damaging as Itachi, it will be something believable. Misaki is not going to run off with him or something crazy like that. Haku is her number one priority. Itachi is not going to change from the person that puts Sasuke first, his village, and then his clan. Any of the friends or romances he does have or make would be at least tied for third or fourth in his priorities if not lower. I actually like his character too much to change much of it.

To Shae Vizla, once again thank you for the review. I'm glad that you were amused by that :) I thought it would be funny. I actually didn't think of the political implications of her meeting and winning both of their acceptances. I chose Tsume to break the news to her for several reasons aside from her daughter, Hana, being Misaki's friend. I'm assuming that she raised Hana and Kiba on her own as their father is never mentioned and with Inuzuka's being pack oriented, I felt she would be perturbed that Haku and Misaki went through that and genuinely want to help knowing how hard it is to be a single parent. I can't imagine someone like Hiashi approaching Misaki like that nor would he have any reason to. With the Uchihas, there is no way they would allow someone to befriend or hangout with their heir without meeting her. I'm glad that you liked Mikoto's and Shisui's characterizations and playfulness; I had a lot of fun writing those two into that chapter. As for the cake incident, I happen to love chiffon cake and I was reading a yelp review of one of the bakeries I like to get chiffon cake from and someone had written that it was the worst bakery ever because their cake had a hole in the center lol.

To 8, thanks for the review! Itachi definitely is a sweets maniac but I'm not planning on having Misaki date for a while as her peers are all wayyy too young for her to even consider dating yet. However that doesn't mean that no one will develop a crush on her as she gets older. She is a prodigy and judging by how Haku looked in the anime, Misaki is going to turn out very pretty.

To lilnudger82, thank you so much for the reviews and kind words! I'm happy to hear that my story was able to move you to sadness and laughter. In ch1 it seemed like something anyone would do if confronted by an issue like that.

To sweetandsimple1, thanks for the amazing review! I'm glad that you enjoyed this chapter. I've been dying for more of certain parts Draco's personality to come out but I'm trying to make it work naturally with the story. As Misaki gets older and progresses further into her shinobi career more parts of Draco's personality and skills will become evident. She's still the same person and a lot of aspects of Draco's personality and his skills are well suited for shinobi life. In Taku, she was able to relax and enjoy being a kid and Konoha is peaceful so she hasn't needed to use her previous life's skills. It could've been nine years or possibly shorter or longer since Draco died, time may not run at the same speed in each world. I do have plans about tying in more of his past life into the story. I purposely haven't revealed how Draco died yet. I have plans that will lead up to something that I think you'll find interesting but it's not until further in the story. I actually went and read a few articles about writing in the past versus present tense after reading your review. I enjoy reading fics that aren't riddled with grammatical errors so I've been trying to keep my story free of them. I haven't written anything before and just assumed it would be better to write it in the present tense but I think I'm going to switch to the past tense to try to avoid tense issues in the future. It feels more natural to write in past tense anyways.

To Ebony sword, thanks for the review and I'm glad you like my fic! If or when Zabusa appears in the story again i already have Zabuza's apprentice planned out already and no it will not be Kimimaro.

 **Chapter 8: To Graduation and Beyond**

The rest of the term after Itachi's birthday passed by quickly and before Misaki knew it, it was the start of summer break. In this world, the school system was quite different from what Misaki was used to. Hogwarts was run on a semester system with the first semester starting in the fall and the last semester starting in the winter.

The academy was run on a trimester system with the first trimester from April 1st to July 19th, summer break from July 20th to August 31st, the second trimester from September 1st to December 25th, winter break from December 26th to January 9th, and the final trimester from January 10th ending in March 25th.

Towards the end of their first trimester of the academy, she slowly began to beat Shogo more frequently. When the semester ended, she had won the last six spars between them. She also began winning fifty percent of the spars against Masashi. While his taijutsu was still more fluid than hers, thanks to Gai's training methods she had managed to surpass him enough in speed to win sometimes. However against Itachi, she still struggled to beat him one out of every four spars if that.

Summertime in Konoha was disgustingly hot at least compared to Taku. Misaki and Haku had grown up on an island where for the majority of the time it was either cool or freezing cold. Misaki had experienced sweltering summers before in England but Haku had never experienced anything other than the weather on Taku. To put it into perspective, a hot day in the summer in Taku was the equivalent of nice cool summer day in Konoha.

During the summer, Misaki continued her morning training with Gai-sensei but with one change. As Haku no longer had school, he accompanied her to her morning training and read as he waited for her to finish every day. Misaki debated on starting Haku on chakra control exercises as she had begun them at the age of four but he had not expressed any interest in pursuing the path of becoming a shinobi so Misaki decided to wait until he came to her for help.

They were no longer in a country where the citizens might attack them at any time for having kekkei genkai, so it was not imperative for Haku to learn. With his gentle and kind nature, Haku might not even decide to become a shinobi. So far he seemed perfectly happy attending his civilian preschool.

Now that Misaki didn't have the academy during the day, she had a lot more free time. Most of which she spent with Haku. He read different manga or novels while she trained during the afternoon but when she was not training they went to the movies, played in the park, and enjoyed other leisure activities. She even began teaching Haku to swim with Tsume's help.

She and Haku also spent a lot of time at the Inuzuka compound playing with the various puppies or hanging out with Hana. Taro and she had sparred and then gone out to eat afterwards a few times over the break as well but she didn't see much of Itachi during the vacation.

During the first three weeks of summer vacation, Itachi went with his clan on their yearly trip. Once they had returned, his father made him train vigorously to make up for lost time. In fact, she had seen Itachi a grand total of twice before the school year started up again on September 1st.

The second trimester of school passed much like the first one. Despite the fact that her accuracy and chance of hitting a bullseye had improved, Misaki still found the class to be her least favorite. Taijutsu continued to be a fun class that was her favorite.

Genjutsu class still focused on identifying and dispelling genjutsu but the teacher had started to teach them the principles behind creating and weaving genjutsus.

During the second trimester, the biggest change was Akira-sensei began teaching them actual ninjutsu. While they were only E-ranked ninjutsu and Misaki had already known the transformation and replacement techniques, it was interesting to learn new ninjutsu and actually use chakra. Ninjutsu class soon became one of her favorite classes.

Kuniochi classes continued to educate them in different cultures, manners, and even cooking. The classes taught them anything that could be of use to creating and maintaining covers. Rukia-sensei even taught them how to do a formal tea ceremony and how to properly put on a kimono.

Time passed in a blink of an eye and before Misaki knew it, it was already winter break. The nightly bedtime stories Misaki had continued to read to Haku and the passing of time helped him move past the majority of his grief. But all of his grief was brought to the forefront when they went to the shrine together on New Year's Day.

Misaki had debated on whether or not they should go but when she asked Haku, he said that he wanted to go. Haku wanted to start a new tradition for the two of them.

It had always been a family event that they did with their mother and that man. Going to the shrine without their mother really highlighted her absence. Even after they had returned home, the mood was somber instead of joy-filled as it always had been every year after going to the shrine.

That night Misaki was awoken to the soft pitter patter of feet as Haku entered her room and climbed into her bed. Misaki had squeezed his hand and softly shared magic-filled tales with him until he fell asleep. As she had lay there on her bed, for the first time in ages sleep evaded her.

Usually her day was so busy that by the time she lay down and placed her head on the pillow she fell asleep instantly. As she looked up at the heavens, she hoped there was an afterlife and that her mother was happy and at peace. She laid there with those thoughts in mind looking at the inky, black sky that was devoid of any stars until she drifted off to sleep.

During the third trimester of the academy, Misaki found that projectile throwing class was no longer frustrating. Over the past nine months, her accuracy improved from a forty percent chance of hitting the target to a ninety percent chance and an eighty percent chance of hitting the bulls-eye.

Her classmates had been improving as well so even though she greatly improved her throwing skills, she was barely in the top percentile of her class for throwing kunai and shuriken.

In the academy, each class had a top kunoichi spot and a top shinobi spot. There was one overall top spot that was either the top kunoichi or top shinobi. Misaki had originally planned on allowing someone else to have the top kunoichi spot as she didn't want to deprive someone of the chance to be the top of their class.

But the kunoichi ranked below her in the number two spot, Ito Haruka, was ranked eighth spot overall meaning that Misaki had to drop her rankings to the ninth overall for Haruka to have the top spot. It went against every fiber of Misaki's being to underperform by such a vast amount like that. Lucius had drilled the need to strive for perfection into Misaki during her past life.

Besides she wasn't actually taking the top spot in their class. That position was firmly held by Itachi. They were tied in ninjutsu scores, academic test scores, and taijutsu scores. However, Itachi excelled at projectile throwing and genjutsu completely beating Misaki in those areas. Misaki had been right on the money when she had predicted that Itachi would excel at ninjutsu and genjutsu.

As the third trimester drew to a close, Misaki decided to take the graduation exam. At the beginning of this school year, she had been unsure if she would be ready to graduate from the Academy in a year. But she was second in her class across the board except for projectile throwing and genjutsu and in those categories she still was among the top percentile. Projectile throwing was something that extra schooling would not help with and the academy didn't teach any other genjutsu to their students anyways.

It was kind of sad that in both of her lives Misaki would graduate in the number two position but she comforted herself with the fact that both times she was beaten by genius prodigies. Whatever people said about Hermione or Itachi, no one ever denied that they were both brilliant genii.

The graduation exam was a piece of cake. Misaki breezed through the cumulative written exam and had performed the necessary ninjutsu techniques perfectly. As Akira-sensei handed her a Konoha headband and congratulated her, Misaki was surprised by how easy the whole exam had been.

As the entire exam was finished by 11, for the first time in a long time, Misaki was alone. Haku was in preschool until 12. Itachi and Taro both went home to celebrate with their respective families. They had both invited her to join them but she didn't want to intrude. Besides she had promised Haku that they would go out to eat lunch and celebrate together.

Even though her mother wouldn't have been happy about her becoming a kunoichi, Misaki wished that she could've celebrated her graduation with her. Feeling melancholy, Misaki was about to walk in the general direction of her apartment when Tsume caught sight of her and flagged her down with two boxes in her hand.

"I remember you mentioning you liked strawberry daifuku. Congratulations on graduating." Tsume said as she gave Misaki a hug and handed both boxes to Misaki. "The other box is a graduation present from Hana and me. I was planning on taking you out to lunch after your exam but I got called for a mission. Sorry kiddo."

In her apartment, Misaki opened the graduation present from Hana and Tsume and was deeply touched by the gift. Inside the box laid a brand new set of shuriken and kunai as well as a framed photograph of herself, Haku, and Hana smiling as they played with some Inuzuka puppies.

For some reason despite having modern televisions and movie theaters, cameras were clunky and expensive in this world. She hadn't even known that Tsume owned a camera let alone that she took a picture of them. She placed the picture on the bookshelf next to the framed photograph of Tonomi before leaving the apartment to pick up Haku.

The morning after the graduation exam, Misaki sat in class as she waited for Akira-sensei to arrive and announce the team assignments. She hoped that she gets placed with Itachi and Taro but she doubted that would happen.

Other than Taro and Itachi, she didn't know any of her other classmates very well. She didn't dislike any of them nor did she have any enemies among them but at the same time she had never exchanged more than a few words with most of them. She knew Shogo from the sheer amount of time she had spent at the Inuzuka clan compound but she wouldn't call him more than a friendly acquaintance.

A few minutes later, Akira-sensei entered the room and silence spread across the room as everyone eagerly faced him to learn their team assignments. On team 1, Masashi had received Inuzuka Mamoru as his sensei with the female Aburame in their class and Matsumoto Atsushi, the older brother of the bratty girl Misaki had trolled the first day, as his teammates.

As Taro had predicted, he was placed on team 2 with Nara Eiichi and Ito Haruka with Yamanaka Inoichi as his sensei. More and more teams were called out but as Misaki didn't particularly care about her random classmates teams she zoned out until her or Itachi's name was called. Hearing Itachi's name, Misaki tuned in just in time to hear her name and Shogo's name called out as his teammates with someone named Akimichi Chouza as their sensei.

"Sensei, how come they get to be placed together? That's not fair that they get special treatment because they're prodigies. I want to be with my friends too!" Minami whined as several other classmates began chiming in about how it was unfair.

"They aren't getting special treatment because they're prodigies. Their skills work well together and Shogo's skills are also the best fit with their team composition. Team assignments are based on whose skills complement each other's. For example, as Atsushi-kun is a chakra sensor he was placed with Masashi-kun and Keiko-chan to form a tracker unit. Now quiet down and let me finish announcing the teams."

Misaki was ecstatic that Shogo and Itachi were her genin teammates. She already knew she worked well with both of them. As Akira-sensei resumed calling out team assignments, she wondered how Shogo's skills best suited their team though. Going by what Akira-sensei had said, wouldn't Shogo have been a better fit on team 1?

Not that she was complaining about him being on her team but neither she nor Itachi had exceptional talent in tracking. Misaki wondered what kind of unit they could possibly be.

As possible answers came to Misaki, her stomach clenched and she felt slightly sick. She and Itachi were both fast frontal assault powerhouses. Running through all possibilities, the likeliest answers were their team would be groomed to search and destroy or search and rescue. But as she didn't think that either she or Itachi had any abilities that would assist in hostage rescue, it was more likely the former than the latter. Their whole team possessed excellent speed that would only grow faster as they got older, speed that would assist at hunting people down or destroying things and escaping.

In the back of her mind, she had known that the shinobi path was a dark and violence filled one but she had ignored it in her pursuit of strength so she would be able to protect herself and Haku. This world was a much rougher place than her old world had been. The run-in with the two lowlifes in Suzu cemented that fact in Misaki's mind.

She didn't want to have to rely on someone else's help and she never wanted to feel helpless like that again. She had had enough of feeling helpless and powerless from her previous life. So she had just focused on the fact that she needed to get stronger to be able to protect them. Between how swamped she was with taking care of them and training, she had not spared a thought to what she would have to do once she graduated.

Even though Misaki knew they wouldn't be sent out on missions like that until they were much older, knowing they had possibly placed two eight year olds and a thirteen year old on a team together to hone their teamwork and groom them for that still made Misaki want to retch. In her old world, thirteen year olds were barely old enough to go to Hogsmead on the weekends not on the path to becoming trained killers.

Misaki wasn't stupid; she wasn't ignorant to what shinobis did. In Suzu she had recognized the dark stains on her savior's flak jacket as blood. After surviving through a war in her past life, she had learned to recognize it instantly.

She had just pushed her concerns to the back of her mind; she was good at compartmentalizing like that. But it was if the floodgates had opened and wiped out her joy at graduating the instant she had realized the possible purpose of her new team. All the concerns she had ignored were now churning through her mind like a never-ending storm.

This world's ideas of good and bad were vastly different then her old world and killing wasn't seen as morally reprehensible as it had been in her past life. It wasn't the act being viewed as morally reprehensible that Misaki struggled with but the act itself. She honestly didn't know if when the time came for her to take another person's life, if she could actually do it.

After the war, she had struggled with the horrible atrocities her actions wrought. She had single-handedly caused Hogwarts, a castle that had stood impervious to any invading forces for centuries, to fall. She had been terrified of the dark lord's wrath and terrified for her parents' safety but her actions in protection of them indirectly and directly caused so many tragedies.

Fred Weasley's death, his own second cousin becoming an orphan, the list went on and on of things that she did not have a direct hand in but felt at least partially responsible for. The only things that had soothed her conscious were that she had not murdered anyone during the war, that she had been about to accept Dumbledore's offer of aid right before Severus entered the astronomy tower and everything went to hell, and that she had hid the golden trios identities from her crazy aunt.

She had spent the years after the war desperately trying to atone for her sins. She had just managed to make peace with her actions a year before she had died and been reborn in this world.

Waving off Itachi's concerned glance, she pushed her dark thoughts aside and turned to regard her innocent thirteen year old classmates patiently waiting for their jonin sensei. As they smiled and laughed, she morosely wondered if any of them even realized the severity of the path they were about to embark on. Glancing at Itachi from the corner of her eyes, Misaki wondered if as a genius prodigy he had already grasped what their classmates were too naive and sheltered to acknowledge.

From observing them in class, she knew that for many of them being a shinobi was tantamount to knowing cool techniques and having awesome fights. Physically and mentally they were children, but at the same time they were no longer children.

The moment they had graduated and donned their headbands, they had become adults in the eyes of Konoha and part of Konoha's ninja force. They became part of a force that was expected not only to complete missions and to protect the citizens of fire country but also to eradicate Konoha's enemies.

As their jonin sensei, a kindly looking man in his thirties gestured for them to follow him Misaki firmly pushed her troubled thoughts out of her head. She wasn't planning on ignoring them but it would not do her any good to ruminate on them now.

As they were listening to their sensei's introduction, Itachi observed Misaki out of the corner of his eyes. He knew that during class something deeply disturbed her but no matter how much he reviewed the words Akira-sensei had said in his mind, he couldn't figure out what had caused the joy to fade from her face and be replaced by an indecipherable mask. She seemed better now but she still seemed somber.

After the three of them finished their introductions and their sensei dismissed them after telling them to meet at training ground 14 tomorrow morning at 10, Itachi turned to Misaki to ask her about earlier only to stop at the shuttered expression in her eyes. She obviously knew what he was about to ask her but it was clear that she didn't want to talk about it. Deciding to respect her wishes, he said his goodbyes and left instead.

The next morning on training ground 14, Chouza examined the three genin waiting for his instructions. When he met them yesterday, Itachi and Shogo were what he had been expecting based on their files. The girl, Misaki, however had thrown him off. According to her file and what he had heard from his previous genin students, he had not been expecting the somber girl that had gone through the motions of her introductions with her mind a million miles away. Gai had described her as a slightly sarcastic but youthful girl and Gemna had said that she had a good sense of humor. This morning she looked well-rested and fine so perhaps it had been something to do with her tragic past.

Chouza already knew that Shogo, Itachi, and Misaki worked well together and had demonstrated excellent teamwork during the academy but before passing them he wanted to see it for himself. He gave them the spiel about how only 33 percent of genins pass before telling them that they have an hour to land a hit on him and that the clock was ticking.

As he expected, all three genin teamed up together to launch their assault against them. What he hadn't been expecting was for them to be able to land a hit so fast. About twenty minutes into their spar, Chouza was about to dodge out of the way of Itachi's kick when he realized he couldn't. As the kick connected he looked down and saw that his feet were anchored to the ground by ice. Chuckling, he congratulated his new genin team on passing before inviting them to lunch at his favorite barbeque place.

Weeks after the genin exam, Misaki knew that she had been right when she had seen her furniture movers and thought that genins were probably used for manual labor.

She hadn't made any headway with her moral dilemma but as the only missions they had gotten were ones for babysitting, gardening, and other errands like that, she figured it was something she wouldn't have to deal with yet. She decided that she would cross that issue when it came to it.

Every day but Sunday her team met at eight o'clock sharp for a couple hours of training after which they did a D-ranked mission or two before being dismissed. She, Shogo, and Itachi all actually really liked their sensei. Chouza-sensei was patient and kind. He almost was like a grownup version of Taro.

Misaki found to her surprise that she actually had more free time as a genin than she had had as an academy student. She used some of that free time to train with Gai. Now that she was a genin, she no longer was able to train with him in the mornings.

They now met twice a week at four o'clock in the afternoon when he could make it. So far she had only learned about half of the katas of the style Gai was teaching her. It would probably take her another six months to a year to learn the rest.

She also used some of her free time to continue training with her kekkei genkai. A couple days after Chouza-sensei had passed them, she approached him after their D-rank mission to ask if he could help her with her Kekkei Genkai.

Unfortunately, he had never seen ice release being used so he couldn't offer her any help but he promised to ask around the older shinobi that might have seen it being used in battle. Misaki had been disappointed before Chouza-sensei told her that while she might not know how it had been used in battle that there were unlimited possibilities of what she could do with it.

He was right. While she didn't know how other ice release users had used their kekkei genkai in the past, for now she focused on strengthening her control over it. She improved the speed at which she could create ice and enforce her will over water.

After training her kekkei genkai for the past year, she had enough control and speed to use it in spars against Shogo and Itachi. Misaki found it hilarious when they tried to dodge something only find their feet were sealed to the ground by ice. While that wasn't fast enough to utilize against anyone other than untrained genin, her training enabled her to create ice whenever and wherever she wanted.

It was during one spar on a Thursday morning that she discovered that she and Shogo weren't the only people on the team with a kekkei genkai. During her initial journey to Konoha, Gai had told her that many of the great clans had kekkei genkai as well but other than Masashi's byakugan and Shogo's dog like attributes and special bond with his dog she had yet to see many.

She was sparring with Itachi as Shogo sparred against Chouza-sensei when mid dodge she looked at his face and was startled to see blood red orbs peering at her instead of the normal obsidian. His punch connected as she froze mid dodge. She remained frozen as another blow connected, trapped in her past memories unable to return to the present.

After the dark lord fell, Misaki had not expected to ever see blood red eyes again as it wasn't a natural eye color. Seeing blood red eyes again after so many years transported her back to a time and memories she had tried her hardest to forget. It had reminded Misaki of being a petrified teenage boy trapped in his beloved childhood home by the insane owner of similar blood red eyes. That time was filled with the terror of not knowing if she and her parents would survive the war.

Itachi stopped mid spar when he realized that Misaki had frozen and was not retaliating. Concerned he approached her carefully and checked for injuries. She was uninjured but her eyes were vacant as she stared at something unseen. He grabbed her shoulder which caused her to come to her senses only for her to instantaneously recoil from him when she glanced at his face again. He was slightly hurt by her recoiling from him but he realized the issue so he turned off his sharingan. As soon as his eyes faded back to their normal color, Misaki seemed to relax.

"Sorry, the red startled me. I wasn't recoiling from you." Misaki stated apologetically before hesitantly explaining, "I've had terrible nightmares involving red eyes before so it just surprised me when I caught a glance of them mid spar."

Itachi wondered if it was truly just fear from nightmares. The look in her eyes before realizing it was him was one of pure terror. Misaki had recoiled before she had even processed anything. It had been automatic response not a conscious movement. Itachi frowned for a few seconds in thought before he accepted her apology and stated, "They're our clan's kekkei genkai and called the sharingan. All Uchiha have the possibility of unlocking them."

After hearing all Uchiha had the possibility of unlocking red eyes, Misaki knew she needed to get used to seeing them. Turning to Itachi she said, "I'm fine now. Actually, may I see them again and while we're sparring can you use them every so often? Red eyes aren't exactly common, it just startled me." While Misaki could happily gone through her life without seeing a pair of red eyes again, she figured it was better to get over any issue with them right now than to be frozen or be startled on the field.

Nodding, Itachi turned back on his sharingan and Misaki moved closer to inspect them. Misaki expected to feel panic at the sight of his sharingan but to her surprise she felt nothing. The initial sight of red eyes had sent her reeling into horrible memories. The last time she had seen red eyes was a lifetime ago and she had been caught off guard by them.

Relief flooded through Misaki. She knew that she would be fine if she saw them in the future. Seeing Misaki not react in the slightest to his sharingan eased Itachi and they resumed their sparring.

Misaki had always mildly disliked cats. They shed hair everywhere and the one cat she generally had come in contact with had been evil incarnate. Hermione had loved that beast and thought he was the sweetest thing but Misaki knew true evil when she saw it. It was one of the few things he and Ron had actually agreed about.

But as Misaki chased down the she-demon cat called Tora, Misaki realized that Crookshanks hadn't actually been that bad. Sure he had intentionally peed on Misaki once, ripped up many pairs of her shoes, and leapt onto her head from various vantage points. But he hadn't actually tried to permanently maim her like Tora had fifteen minutes ago and five minutes ago when Misaki had managed to corner her. He had reserved that kind behavior for Ron. Tora, the vicious beast, was fast. She had already managed to scratch up Shogo quite a few times.

Over the radio Itachi called out that he had found Tora and was closing in on her location. Shogo and Misaki shared a grimace before they raced over to help their teammate confront the savage beast. Misaki entered the clearing first only to come to a dead stop. When Shogo entered, he also stopped with a bewildered expression on his face. They had expected to confront the demon cat that they had been chasing all around town for the past hour but were greeted by the sight of a purring cat in Itachi's arms.

Itachi elegantly raised an eyebrow over their dumbfounded expressions before the left corner of his lips turned up in a slight smirk as his eyes gleamed with amusement. His slight smirk turned into a full-blown smirk as he eyed the distance his teammates were keeping from him and Tora.

"Since the beast seems to actually like you, you get the honor of carrying her back to the fire daimyo's wife." Shogo said as he made sure to keep a far distance from the hell beast he hoped he never had to see again. But he finally understood why he had once seen his older brother take a flying leap away from an orange cat that looked similar. At the time he had laughed his ass off at his brother to which his brother had responded with wait until your turn. The comment hadn't made any sense at the time but now it definitely did.

"Beast? You don't mean sweet little Tora, do you? Look how sweet she is. I think you guys just got off of the wrong foot. Here, why don't you hold her? I mean after all, you are the one who requested you wanted a "tougher" mission Shogo." Itachi stated with a completely serious expression as he started to hold Tora out to Shogo. As Shogo backed away slowly, the serious expression was replaced by a wicked smile.

"Itachi, I swear if Shogo drops that cat and we're forced to chase it around for another hour I'll make what that cat did to Shogo pale in comparison to what I will do to you. I do **not** want to run around town to find that wretched cat again." Misaki said sweetly with a slightly maniacal edge. Looking at Misaki's expression, Itachi shivered and placed the cat more securely in his arms. He knew when not to mess with his friend and teammate. Chouza-sensei chuckled at their comments as they headed back to return Tora.

As they made their way out of the building, Misaki turned to Chouza. "Sensei if you promise to never get that mission for us again, I'll make you two really delicious chocolate cakes called chiffon cake. I promise it's worth your while. Ask Taro, he's tried it before."

"Trying to bribe your jonin-sensei, huh? Gutsy. You're in luck. I just so happen to have a love for cake and Taro mentioned the chiffon cake he tried at your home to his mother who mentioned it to me. Very well, make it four cakes and you've got yourself a deal." Amused by the fact that Misaki tried to bribe him with food, Chouza had decided to accept. He hated that accursed cat anyways. He had chased around a Tora in his genin days as well. He wished he had thought to try to bribe his sensei with some food. It was smart. With how delicious his family's special recipe dishes are he probably wouldn't have had to chase that she-demon cat down so many times.

Besides according to Natsumi, Taro's mother, Taro had raved about the cake and said it had been one of the best he had ever had. No self-respecting Akimichi could pass on the chance to try that. So he had asked for four cakes one for Taro's family, one for his, one for Shikaku's, and one for Inoichi's.

He asked for a cake for Shikaku because he knew his wife, Yoshino, would do unspeakable things to him if she ever learned that he didn't share the wealth. Yoshino loved chocolate almost as much as she loved Shikaku and she put up with all of his lazy antics.

Chouza loved his dear friend and teammate to death but living with him for a prolonged period of time would drive most people batty. There was lazy and then there was Nara lazy.

He had asked for one for Inoichi too because he and Inoichi had weekly competitions of whose genin teams were better and this was sure to win. Besides with how quickly Misaki was to accept his counter, she obviously didn't mind.

Misaki heaved a sigh of relief as Chouza-sensei agreed. Shogo hugged her tightly and began singing her praises. She never wanted to see that damn cat again. Well, she amended in her head; I don't care if I see it as long as I don't have to chase it down.

A day later, Chouza, his son, and his wife looked at each other before they looked down at the slices of cake sitting in front of each of them. He had delivered the other cakes to their destination and raced home to try his. Excited, Chouza puts a forkful of cake into his mouth and his taste buds danced in happiness. It was so light, so airy, so chocolatey, so absolutely… DELICIOUS.

He turned to his family to see how they liked the cake and saw expressions of rapture on his wife's and son's face. As he started on his second slice, Chouza thought to himself that it was definitely worth it. Delicious cake and no more Tora, this genin team was lucky one of its members was a very gifted baker.

After the horrible Tora mission, babysitting and weeding did not seem as bad anymore. Shogo also did not ask for any harder mission as he feared ending up with something crazy like that again. It was kind of funny to Misaki to see Shogo jump at the sight of orange cats for days after the mission. She knew that Itachi found it amusing as well. Though he rarely showed it on his face, his eyes would glint with amusement every time Shogo jumped. If Misaki didn't know better, she would've sworn that Itachi somehow had gotten the same orange tabby to follow Shogo around as they did D-ranks. He had a mischievous spark in his eyes every time that tabby had shown up and she had seen what looked like the same orange tabby at least twenty times in the week after the Tora mission.

A sunny afternoon about three months after they had become genin, Chouza-sensei walked them in front of three similar height trees and informed them he would be teaching them tree walking. Finding out that Misaki and Itachi both knew tree walking, he had demonstrated for Shogo before leading them to water. After he demonstrated water walking, he sat down in the shade between where Shogo was practicing and they were.

As she had with tree walking, Misaki tentatively placed her foot on the water and tried to stick to the surface. She was about to advise Itachi to do the same when she heard a splash as he fell into the lake. Looking at his drenched appearance, Misaki couldn't help but laugh. Hearing her laughter, Itachi slightly pouted before getting out of the lake.

Misaki was a perfectionist and her lack of chakra control had bothered her. After four years of non-stop practicing chakra control, she had finally managed to achieve pretty precise control. Despite pretty precise control on both their parts neither Itachi nor Misaki managed to master water walking by the time Chouza-sensei dismissed them but both had gotten fairly close.

Chouza had thought that Itachi would end up mastering the exercise before Misaki as she had far more chakra but he had been surprised to find she had quite good control of said chakra. Shogo still had a bit to go with his tree climbing but Chouza was confident that he would be able to get it down soon.

As he looked at his genin, he decided that it would be time for their first C-rank soon. Once Shogo finished tree walking and learned water walking, he would request one. He just hoped that it didn't run amok as most people's first c-rank missions strangely happened to do.

It always seemed like the oddest or craziest things happened to happen during a genin's first C-rank. For his old genin students' first c-rank, all Chouza had to say about that horrifying incident was Gai left for the c-rank in normal clothes and returned in that god awful jumpsuit. The rest was better left unsaid.


	9. Hard Choices and Decisions

A/N: I haven't really written out in depth fight scenes so hopefully you guys enjoy mine.

To lilnudger82, thanks for the review & I'm glad that you liked this chapter :)

To Shae Vizla, thanks for the review! I'm not sure what happened in the canon with Itachi's teammates but I could see his genius inspiring jealousy and his quiet personality seeming like arrogance. I had Choza be their sensei because I'm trying not to create too many ocs and I thought it would be funny too. Besides I can't imagine Fugaku being okay with a random no-name shinobi being his heir's jonin sensei.

To lady kira 8, thanks for the review. I couldn't resist adding Tora to the story. It's kind of like a fanfiction genin rite of passage from how often she's mentioned in fanfiction lol. By the start of canon do you mean seeing more canon characters appearing? Or like the rookie 9 graduating etc? There will start to be more appearances from canon characters in the coming chapters. Now that they have become genin things will start to speed up but the rookie 9 becoming genin is a quite a ways away. Itachi and Misaki are eight about to turn nine and which makes Sasuke, Naruto, and the rest still 3 about to turn 4 years old.

To Shadow of God, thanks for another review. Do you mean fairly standard character in a good way like it seems natural or in a bad like she's become a mary sue way? I do love myself a good zombie apocalypse but I'm not about to go all walking dead on Misaki. That would be a really angst ridden but interesting one shot though.

To sweetandsimple1, thanks for the review :) I'm glad that you enjoyed this chapter. I read your note about the #1 shinobi thing and went back and revised that part of chapter 8. I've been trying to make Misaki a believable character and I didn't think that after the struggle Draco had when he was about to kill Dumbledore that it would be realistic at all if he took the issue lightly. It seemed like to me something that anyone would struggle with especially Draco who had been faced with the choice before and chosen not to even to the detriment of himself and his family. Sure, I'll be sure to add in a segment or two from Haku's point of view. I've been focusing on Misaki's pov since Haku is in civilian preschool but I didn't realize how little I've mentioned him in the past chapter or so.

 **Chapter 9: Hard Choices and Decisions**

Shogo was able to master tree walking over the course of the next week and Choza-sensei illustrated the basics of water walking. As Itachi and Misaki were able to become quite proficient in water walking during the time it took Shogo to master tree walking, Choza-sensei had them practice sparring on the water.

Sparring on the water was quite fun for Misaki. When it was a taijutsu only spar she and Itachi were fairly even. They each won about fifty percent of the time. However when it was a no holds barred spar, it was no contest. With her control over water and ice, Itachi was unable to defeat her even once during an all-out spar on the lake.

Even though his fully mastered sharingan with three tomoe in each eye granted him predictive capabilities, it wasn't enough when the entire battlefield was a weapon at Misaki's disposal. As they were sparring on a lake, Misaki had endless amounts of water at her disposal. It was easier to freeze pre-existing water than to create water or ice.

It wasn't chakra intensive to create water from the moisture in air or combine wind and water based chakra to create ice but it didn't take a tiny amount of chakra either. Surrounded by water, Misaki was able to control the very water underneath his feet to disrupt his balance and fling endless amounts of icicles, spears, and other weaponry at him.

It was during one of these no holds barred spars on the lake that Misaki discovered an interesting aspect of her kekkei genkai. Misaki had just landed back on the surface of the lake after dodging some kunai when Itachi used the great fireball technique. Seeing the giant fireball headed her way, Misaki created a wall of ice in front of her.

As fire techniques were Itachi's favorite, during previous spars she had discovered that her ice was impervious to fire. She placed one of her hands on the wall of ice and was surprised when her hand disappeared into the ice. Pulling her hand back out of the ice, she finished the spar by trapping Itachi in an icy prison. After team training had ended for the day and they finished their D-rank missions, Misaki dropped Haku off at his play date before heading to the lake and starting to experiment with her kekkei genkai.

On the shore of the lake, Misaki created a five feet tall and three feet wide rectangle of ice. Tentatively, she placed her hand into the ice before she pulled it out again. Her hand seemed unharmed and it hadn't felt cold when she had stuck her hand into the ice. Misaki took a deep breath before she stepped into the ice.

Inside of her ice it was like a pocket dimension of some kind. There was the ice panel that had served as her gateway into this space but other than that Misaki was surrounded by darkness. She couldn't even tell how far it stretched. Misaki then stepped back out of the rectangle of ice and created a second one without dissolving the first.

After stepping into the second panel, she was elated to find that she could still see the first rectangle from inside the pocket dimension as well as exit from it. With a smile on her face, Misaki decided to use this as a trump card for the next time she and Itachi sparred on land.

Shogo was a day or two away from mastering water walking so Choza had a decision to make. Choza watched Shogo work on his water walking as he evaluated his other two genins that were sparring on the surface of the lake.

Itachi and Misaki were fast approaching the levels of a strong genin. If they weren't so young and Shogo was ready he would nominate them for the upcoming chunin exams in December. Shogo on the other hand was slightly above the average genin in most areas except taijutsu where he excelled. His taijutsu level was approaching that of a strong genin.

Together, they could definitely take most chunin down and he would be there to protect them as well. However, C-ranks could sometimes jump from a C-rank to a B-rank or seldom an A-rank. While it wasn't common for clients to lie about their mission parameters it still happened occasionally.

Occasionally a client would hire shinobi for a C-rank when it was in actuality closer to a B-rank mission. That was probably part of the reason why so many genins' first C-rank mission went awry. He didn't want to request a C-rank and return with any of them injured or god forbid one less genin.

He almost hadn't survived his first C-rank mission. If not for Shikaku's quick thinking and actions, he wouldn't be here teaching these kids right now. While these kids were stronger than his genin team had been on their first C-rank mission and their teamwork was excellent, the strength difference between a strong genin and weak genin didn't make much of a difference against ninjas stronger than chunin.

Not only had he grown fond of his genin in the past four months but all three of his genins were fairly important. Itachi was the heir to the Uchiha clan, Shogo was the nephew of the current head of the Inuzuka clan, and Misaki was one of the two remaining members of the Yuki clan.

Choza didn't want to have to tell any of their families that their loved one had perished. How could he tell Fugaku and Mikoto that their prodigal son and heir had died under his watch, or Tsume that one of the last pieces of her beloved younger sister was now gone, or break the news to a five year old that his only remaining family member and caretaker was no longer in this world.

Once Shogo mastered water walking, they all would have sufficient chakra control to learn chakra reinforcement so Chouza resolved to teach his genin that to use in their taijutsu before requesting their first c-rank.

Two and a half weeks later on a crisp August day, Misaki was excited for her first C-rank mission. Choza-sensei had finally decided to request one. Masashi's team had just taken their first c-rank mission a week ago. She had always loved travelling but since being reborn in this world and moving to Konoha she had not been able to travel.

Though their mission was only to a small town a few hours away from Konoha, Misaki was excited to leave Konoha and explore a different part of Fire country. Their mission was to deliver a scroll to a merchant in Kariya. Choza-sensei told them that generally c-ranks do not have a chance of combat against other ninja but to be on their guard just in case.

While Shogo, Itachi, and Misaki had mastered tree walking, they had yet to use it to travel. During journey to Kariya, they raced across the trees jumping from branch to branch.

At first, it was difficult to avoid tree trunks and branches but by the time they made it do Kariya they had mostly gotten it down. None of them ended up running into any tree trunks or branches but there were a few close calls.

They delivered the scroll to the merchant, grabbed lunch in Kariya, explored a little of the city, and then headed back to Konoha. Despite Choza's worries, their first C-rank mission went off without a hitch.

After their first c-rank mission, they returned to the drudgery of D-rank missions for another two months. During that time Choza-sensei continued to hone their skills. He taught them a few basic genjutsu to add to their repertoire and honed their teamwork to the point that they were a well-oiled machine.

He also tested their elemental affinities and handed them each a leaf. Itachi had a fire affinity and wind affinity, Shogo had a fire affinity, and Misaki had a water and wind affinity.

"Itachi, sharingan does allow you to utilize any technique from seeing the hand seals and the way the chakra is formed for the jutsu. However, as I'm sure your father told you when he taught you your first fire jutsu, your jutsus will be stronger if you know how to utilize the element before copying jutsu of that element and using it. So I want you and Misaki to focus on using your chakra to cut through your leaves. I do not have a wind affinity so I can't show you an example but you want to focus on making your chakra as thin and sharp as possible. Shogo I want you to focus on using your chakra to create a spark and light your leaf on fire. I'd work hard on mastering the use of your affinities if I were you guys. I'm not requesting another c-rank until you have completed this and learned one elemental ninjutsu." Choza-sensei explained as he illustrated setting the leaf on fire for Shogo.

They all shared a grimace at the thought of more d-rank missions before getting to work on their leaves.

Choza knew that despite Itachi's proficiency with Fire jutsu, it was different trying to utilize chakra to cut not burn. He expected Itachi to get usage of wind natured chakra in a few weeks tops. Shogo had never utilized elemental chakra at all so it would be probably a month or longer for him to learn.

Misaki was the one Choza wasn't sure about. He knew that her kekkei genkai allowed her to control water and that ice release utilized the combination of wind and water nature but he wasn't sure if she was be able to utilize wind natured chakra on its own.

Misaki glared at her leaf. Ice release utilized wind and water natured chakra but using her kekkei genkai came naturally to her. She didn't have to consciously combine the two chakra natures; they just did when she utilized ice release. Misaki had thought that she would be able to cut the leaf easily but so far she had yet to make even a tear in the leaf.

Itachi had given her scroll containing the instructions for the c-ranked water jutsu called water release gunshot jutsu for her graduation present and she had managed to master it easily. Using water jutsu and water natured chakra came naturally to Misaki. Wind nature… apparently not so much.

As he watched Misaki struggle with her leaf, Choza released that she probably would also take a few weeks. Her kekkei genkai must have naturally utilized wind nature chakra without any effort on her part or her leaf would already be cut slightly or split.

"Shogo, don't get frustrated at the lack of progress. Frustration will only cause your chakra control to waver and make the process harder. Most shinobi take weeks to months to do anything to their leaf." Choza stated as he laid a comforting hand on Shogo's shoulder.

Shogo released a frustrated sigh as he took a minute break before he resumed his efforts in burning the leaf taunting him from where it lay unblemished on his palm.

Fifteen days later, Misaki finally managed to cut clean through her leaf. Itachi had cut his leaf clean through during training the day before which had made Misaki that much more determined to finish cutting through her leaf. She had spent almost every free waking moment trying to learn to utilize her wind natured chakra. So far, Shogo had managed to get his leaf to smoke but he yet to get his leaf to light on fire.

Two weeks after she and Itachi cut through their leaves, Shogo jumped up in excitement as he showed the ashes of his leaf to them. As she congratulated him, Misaki realized how lucky she and Itachi were to have him as a teammate.

It couldn't be easy having two much younger teammates that were stronger and more skilled than you but Shogo never showed any jealously or anger towards them like some of their academy classmates had.

When she and Itachi had mastered the use of their element before him, all it had done was fuel his determination to also master his. To him, as his teammates their strength augmented his strength and that was that.

Choza-sensei had wanted all of them to start learning their first elemental jutsu at the same time. After Shogo burned his leaf, he showed Misaki and Itachi the hand seals for a c-rank jutsu wind release great breakthrough and Shogo the hand seals for a c-rank fire jutsu called fire release great fireball.

A few days after they were taught their jutsus, Choza-sensei requested another c-rank mission for them. They escorted their clients back home to their town before leaving for Konoha. Their second c-rank, an escort mission to a nearby town, went as smoothly as their first.

Emboldened by the ease of their first and second c-rank mission, as they were leaving for their third c-rank mission three months later Shogo boasted, "I bet this mission is going to be a piece of cake like the others. Sensei, how come we don't go on c-rank missions more often? D-ranks are sooo boring."

Choza gave Shogo a pointed look before responding, "You should be happy that you've gone on c-ranked missions. Generally they reserve c-rank missions for chunin or more experienced or **mature** genin."

Hearing the slight censure in Choza-sensei's voice, Shogo gave him a sheepish grin. "Sorry sensei, it is just that it's so much more exciting to be travelling outside Konoha than pulling weeds or running errands. This is our first multiple day mission."

Their client, a businessman named Toshio Kazuma moving to Tanzaku-gai, gave them a startled glance. "This is your guys' first multiple day mission? I was worried when I saw it was two kids and a teenager and now you're saying you haven't done a mission like this before?"

"Toshio-san, they have done a c-rank before. Besides while the journey to Tanzaku-gai is a three day walk, there is only the risk of bandits along the way. As a jonin I'm more than capable of handling bandits. Itachi was the number one rookie of his graduating class, Misaki was the number two rookie, and Shogo has an acute sense of smell that will be able to detect any incoming issues."

Their client's worried expression dissolved as Choza's words put him at ease. Their client Toshio Kazuma had never been around ninjas before so he asked a ton of questions as they made their way towards Tanzaku-gai. The first day was a peaceful and relaxing trek through the lush forests of fire country.

They weren't able to race through the trees as their client was a civilian but even with the slow pace anything was better than another d-rank mission. That night after they set up camp, Choza assigned Itachi first watch, Misaki second watch, himself third watch, and Shogo the fourth watch.

Simply put, being on watch was boring. Choza-sensei had told them they couldn't do anything that would distract them as they needed to be on guard. During her watch, Misaki tensed when she heard rustling in the bushes but she relaxed at the sight of a rabbit. Other than the appearance of the rabbit, her watch ended with no other surprises.

The next day, they each quickly cleaned themselves at the river near their camp before they packed and resumed their journey. They had been travelling for an hour or two in the morning when Shogo caught scent of three people approaching their party.

He alerted his team through hand signals and they continued their pace as they waited for the three people to reach them and complete their ambush. Shogo could tell by the speed they were approaching at that they were just bandits so he wasn't worried.

Choza proudly watched as his team made quick work of knocking out the bandits before tying them up. They lugged the unconscious bandits to the nearest town's sheriff office before continuing on their journey.

Shogo was surprised when ten minutes after they left the town where they had dropped off the other bandits; he caught wind of another group of people approaching them. Itachi, Shogo, and Misaki once again made quick work of the four bandits and back tracked to the town to drop off this group.

After the third group of bandits attacked an hour and half later, Choza turned to their client. "Is there anything you're not telling us? Three separate bandit attacks in the span of three hours are highly unlikely. This isn't even a route that bandits frequent regularly."

"I swear there is not. I'm just a businessman on my way to live in Tanzaku-gai. I sold my business and am looking to start a new business in Tanzaku-gai." Kazuma hastened to assure Choza.

Choza could tell that Kazuma was telling the truth so he replied, "So you're carrying a lot of money on you then. How much are you carrying? Who knows that you're making this journey? Someone had to have tipped off these bandits."

"I have a little over 2,400,000 ryo. The only person that knows is my partner who bought out my side of the business but I don't think he would do something like that."

At Kazuma reply, Choza pinched the bridge of his nose. Shit… this definitely was not turning out to be the easy c-rank mission that he had thought it was going to be. Obviously Kazuma's partner had decided that he wanted Kazuma's life savings. With the amount of money that his partner stood to gain from Kazuma, there was a possibility that he hired missing nin along with the bandits he had sent their way.

Kazuma had not lied about his mission details and it wasn't his fault that his partner was a sleazebag but Choza still felt upset. As there was no wrongdoing on Kazuma's part, they were contractually obligated to complete the mission and aside from that Kazuma seemed like a nice man. While they had been traveling, he had entertained the shinobi escorting him with funny anecdotes.

So far his team had dispatched of the bandits without killing but they might be forced to if they ran into missing nin. If his partner had decided to hire missing nin at most it would probably be chunin-level missing nin but there was always the possibility that Kazuma's partner thought or realized that Kazuma had enough life savings for it to be worth it to hire a jonin level missing nin.

"Toshio-san, I think its best if you allow me to carry you to Tanzaku-gai to shorten the duration of our journey. The longer we are on the road, the higher chance we have of running into more bandits or even possibly missing nin that your partner hired to rob you. Team, we're going to take to the trees and from this point on absolute silence. Keep your eyes and senses peeled for incoming hostiles. Itachi, take point and I want you to bring up the rear Misaki. Shogo I want you in the middle. The instant you even catch wind of anyone notify us. Let's go."

With Choza carrying Kazuma, they were able to make good time. Just as Choza began to hope that they would make it to Tanzaku-gai without further incident, Shogo yelled out, "Four incoming fast!"

Choza ordered his genin to dash into the clearing on their left. As they entered the clearing, the four shinobi pursuing them caught up with them.

"Hand over the money and we won't kill you." The leader of the group stated as the missing nin eyed their team.

"I'm afraid I can't do that. Shogo protect the client. Misaki and Itachi engage the one on the right." Choza ordered as he shushined behind the left most missing nin and punched him hard knocking him out before he engaged the two ninja in the middle.

Choza was not too worried as the leader and the ninja in the clearing seemed to be chunin level and Misaki and Itachi together would be able to take out up to a mid chunin level missing nin. Well at least he wasn't too worried before Shogo yelled out that three more were incoming.

"Sensei, I can use my kekkei-genkai to protect Toshio-san!" Misaki yelled from the opposite end of the clearing after she heard that there were three more ninja incoming.

Choza yelled back for her to do it and for Shogo to go help Itachi as he expanded his fist and crushed one of the missing nin to death. With more ninja incoming, he couldn't afford to take the time to knock the missing nin out.

He dodged a kick from the leader and retaliated by using the human bullet tank jutsu. While he had thought the leader was only a chunin, as he continued to fight against him Choza realized he was definitely a jonin level opponent as the ninja dodged the bullet tank with ease.

Choza pulled out his bo staff as Misaki dodged a fireball and she raced towards their client to enclose him in a four sided box of ice with ice covering the top and bottom. With their client secured, she turned back towards where Itachi and Shogo were fighting. With at least three more assailants incoming, Choza told his genin to aim to kill.

She caught Itachi's eye and he began a rapid taijutsu assault against their opponent pushing him closer to Misaki's location as Shogo used the jutsu beast human clone transforming Masaru into an identical copy of Shogo and engaged the three shinobi that entered the clearing with his fang passing fang jutsu.

They were all able to dodge Shogo's attack but it gave Misaki the distraction she needed. Misaki used her fast speed to sneak up behind the opponent Itachi was herding her way and created several large ice spikes which stabbed their opponent instantly killing him.

One opponent down, Misaki and Itachi turned their attention to the missing nin Shogo was fighting against. Despite the fact that she had killed that missing nin, Misaki couldn't take the time to process her actions. She immediately joined Shogo in fighting against the other three ninjas.

One of them was definitely chunin level like their first opponent but the other two seemed slightly weaker. One had barely managed to dodge Shogo's gatsuga when they entered the clearing.

As she was the fastest, Misaki engaged the chunin level missing nin as Shogo and his dog launched another gatsuga at the two weaker opponents. One of the weaker opponents didn't manage to dodge Shogo's attack and was flung to the far edge of the clearing crashing through several trees before coming to a stop.

The other managed to dodge only to be caught in a genjutsu by Itachi. The ninja managed to dispel the genjutsu in time to dodge Shogo's attempt to knock him out.

Misaki was on par speed wise with the chunin level missing nin but holy hell he knew a lot of jutsus and had a lot of chakra. He was throwing out fire jutsus like they were candy and the last one had almost caught Misaki.

If not for her kekkei genkai, she probably would've been hit dead on by his fire jutsu. As he dodged her water release gunshot jutsu and retaliated with a volley of kunai and shuriken Misaki slid into one of her ice mirrors to avoid the attack.

The constant usage of her ice release with no water sources nearby was draining her chakra and she didn't know how long she would be able to keep up. It would be safer to remain in her ice but she couldn't allow him to run around unchecked and possibly injure one of her teammates.

Exiting from a different ice panel than she had entered, she was relieved to find Itachi and Shogo managed to defeat the other missing nin and were now launching a coordinated assault against the ninja she had been fighting. He dodged Shogo's swipe and replaced himself with a log to avoid Itachi's fireball as Misaki entered the fray.

All the fire jutsu he had been throwing at her while Itachi and Shogo had been fighting his comrades obviously drained his chakra as he was no longer throwing them out like party favors.

Misaki launched a few spears of ice at him which he dodged as she dodged as his multiple fireballs from his fire release art of the phoenix flower attack. But his dodge put him right in the path of Shogo's gigantic fireball that had been augmented in size and speed by Itachi's wind release great breakthrough.

Horrible agonized screams filled the clearing as their opponent was incinerated in the raging inferno and died. The acrid smell of burnt flesh permeated throughout the clearing and Misaki ran behind a tree and threw up her breakfast. As she continued to dry heave, she could hear both of her teammates also emptying the contents of their stomachs a distance away.

The agonizing screams that his genins' opponent had released and large burst of fire startled his opponent and gave him the opportunity to catch and crush him with his enlarged bo staff. The smells of burnt flesh made Choza feel queasy but as he had experienced that smell many times before he did not lose his lunch like his green genin.

Looking around at the clearing, he felt proud of the strength but also grieved at their lost innocence. They had done admirably in protecting their client but they had all crossed a line that could never be uncrossed.

Choza secured the initial ninja he had knocked out so he wouldn't get loose before anbu picked him up and sealed the missing nin bodies into body scrolls so his genin wouldn't have to look at the bodies before he went to comfort his disturbed genin.

After Misaki could finally breathe without dry heaving, she realized their client was still in her kekkei genkai. She released Kazuma from the icy safety of her kekkei genkai and he stumbled to a tree and threw up all over its roots. As she pulled out her canteen and rinsed her mouth she heard Shogo still dry heaving behind a tree.

The smell of in the clearing was horrendous even to her nose so Misaki couldn't imagine how horrible it was for Shogo's sensitive sense of smell. Let alone the fact that Shogo had cast the fireball that had burnt that missing nin to death.

Itachi had managed to stop heaving as well but he was grim faced as they waited for Shogo and their client to recover. Looking at Itachi's blood-splattered clothes and the water dripping off of Itachi's hands, Misaki realized he must have killed the weak opponent that had dispelled his genjutsu. She knew he died during the brief time she had gone into her ice to dodge her opponent's attack but she hadn't known how.

Once Shogo managed to recover somewhat, Choza hoisted their pale and withdrawn client onto his back and they resumed their trek to Tanzaku-gai. When they reached Tanzaku-gai, Kazuma profusely thanked them before he practically fled their presence. It was evident to all three genin that while he had been grateful for them getting him to Tanzaku-gai safely that the sight of three kids killing the enemy nin had deeply unsettled him.

He had been able to witness the entire battle through Misaki's ice made safe box. He had been bone white after Misaki released him from it and unable to look Itachi, Shogo, or Misaki in the eyes. The easy going comradery he had displayed towards them in the beginning of the journey was conspicuously absent during the hour it took to reach Tanzaku-gai.

Choza had planned on letting his genin team explore Tanzaku-gai for a little bit before heading back to Konoha but as he looked at their withdrawn and grim faces he knew that none of them would be able to derive any enjoyment from the experience.

He knew from experience that being in familiar surroundings with family would be better than a strange city. It was better to leave now and make it to Konoha tonight then stay and return tomorrow. So after Kazuma left, they began the running back to Konoha.

Normally after missions Choza and his genins would converse as they made their way back to Konoha. This journey back to Konoha was uncharacteristically quiet.

Shogo had been quiet and solemn ever since the battle ended. While Itachi was not the most verbose of genins, he too was quieter than normal. His normally expressive eyes stared blankly ahead as he jumped from branch to branch. His hands were still slightly pink from how hard he had scrubbed at them after the battle had ended. Out of his three genin he was the only one to get actual blood on his hands. Misaki had been silent and distraught as well. On their way out of Tanzaku-gai, they had passed a bakery on their left and neither Misaki nor Itachi even glanced at it as they passed.

They were all so young. Much younger than Choza had been when he had his first kill. Without a civilian client slowing them down, they made it back to Konoha by nightfall. When they reached Konoha, Choza dropped off the mission report with a promise to debrief later and handed the genin their mission pay and bounty from the missing nin before he took his genin to the bar his sensei had taken him to after his first kill.

While he wasn't going to allow them to get piss drunk, if they were old enough to kill they were old enough to have some plum wine. Besides as genin technically they were adults in the eyes of Konoha and could actually get alcohol on their own if they wanted.

They sat in the bar in silence with Itachi, Misaki, and Shogo sipping on their saucers of wine as Choza drank sake until Shogo broke the silence. "Sensei, I feel horrible for killing them. Should we have tried harder to knock them out rather than killing them? One of the missing nin was barely older than me. You managed to knock out one of your opponents."

"It's true that I was able to avoid killing one of my opponents and knock him out instead. Because of our power difference, I was able to show him mercy. Only the strong can to show their opponents mercy. It is harder and takes more skill to knock out opponents without getting injured than it is to kill them. Even with my strength, once I heard that there were more ninjas incoming I had to resort to aiming to kill. If I hadn't there was a chance that any of you could've been seriously injured or killed. Showing them mercy at your guys' level might have resulted in one of you guys being harmed. It is an unfortunate aspect of ninja life, one that doesn't get easier. I want you guys to take the next two days off. We will meet on training ground fourteen at 8 o'clock in two days. My door is always open if any of you guys want to talk to me." Choza explained patiently to his genin and watched as they digested his words.

Itachi stared into the saucer of wine in his hands as the deep red color reminded him of the feeling of his foe's blood gushing over his hands as he killed him by stabbing him with a kunai. He knew there was truth to his sensei's words. If Shogo or he had not aimed to kill, the time they spent trying to knock their opponents unconscious could've resulted in Misaki dying by her opponent's hand.

Despite being the same speed as her opponent, Misaki had been way less experienced than her him. All it took was one mistake and it would've been Misaki injured or dead. Heeding his sensei's advice that only the strong can afford to show mercy, Itachi drained the rest of his saucer and resolved to become strong enough so in the future he would be able to avoid killing when he could.

After his genin had finished the small bottle of plum wine, Choza walked each of them to their home. As he knocked on Itachi's front door, Mikoto opened the door and took one look at Itachi's closed off expression before delicately placing a hand on his shoulder and ushering him into the house.

Instead of dropping Shogo off to his home in the Inuzuka compound, he brought him over to Tsume's house. No one should be alone after their first kill and Choza knew that Tsume would take good care of her nephew. Tsume smelled the palpable grief that clung to both genin so she asked Misaki if she wanted to stay over as Haku had already been staying there for the duration of Misaki's mission.

Choza had been about to offer his home for the night to Misaki and Haku so Misaki could have an adult to talk to when Tsume offered and she declined Tsume's offer. Misaki's pinched expression had eased at Haku's presence and the warm hug he gave her before returning inside to gather his stuff.

As Haku retrieved his stuff from the inside of Tsume's house, Choza quietly said to Misaki that if she needed to talk to anyone that his door was always open. Once Haku returned with his stuff, Choza walked them to their apartment before heading for Shikaku's house. He knew Shikaku would still be free at this hour and after this past mission he needed a drink and some company.

As soon as Haku saw his nee-chan's face when she picked him up from Tsume-oba's house, he knew that she was really sad. So he made sure to give her an extra-long and really warm hug before he quickly gathered his stuff. He noticed that after he hugged her, her face seemed to brighten a little. Misaki-nee always gave him nice and warm hugs whenever he was sad and she looked like she needed it. He loved his nee-chan very much and seeing her sad made him feel sad too.

Even though she was sad, after taking a long shower Misaki-nee still read him a bedtime story before she tucked him in and went to her own room. As he lay on his bed, Haku realized that telling him a fairy tale seemed to make Misaki-nee less sad.

A brilliant idea popped up in his head. Misaki-nee had started telling him bedtime stories because he had been really sad. Now Misaki-nee was really sad and it was his turn to return the favor. Haku jumped out of bed and grabbed the notebook that Misaki had written her stories down for him so he would still be able to read the fairytales himself when she was gone for missions.

Notebook in hand, he peeked into Misaki-nee's room and saw she was still awake with the light on. Haku went into Misaki-nee's bedroom and snuggled right next to where she was lying in bed looking out of her window at the sky. As she put her arm around him and continued to look out the window with red-rimmed eyes, he began reading the first story she had ever told him about Sayuri, Ichiro, and their son Haru.

Misaki fondly regarded Haku as he lay sleeping in her bed. He had read her a few fairytales before drifting off mid story. He was such a wonderful and thoughtful younger brother. She had been profoundly touched by his efforts to comfort her. She loved him so much. She had been trying to keep her grief from her face but Haku had known something was wrong and the sweet boy that he was, he had tried to do what he could to lessen her sorrow.

Hearing his child-like and innocent voice repeat the same tales she had used to comfort him had melted some of the horror she had been feeling since her ice spikes had killed that missing nin and she had seen the other missing nin being burnt to death by Shogo's and Itachi's combined ninjutsu attack.

She now understood why her mother had been so troubled by her wish of becoming a ninja. Tonomi had wanted to spar Misaki of a life of violence and death.

Despite being troubled over her actions, she knew Choza-sensei's advice was right. They were nowhere near strong enough to take out chunin level missing ninja without aiming to kill. Attempting to knock out her chunin adversary could have made the difference in her teammates and client's survival chances. Between Shogo, Itachi, her, or sensei's lives and those of enemy ninja she would always choose herself and her teammates safety.

However that didn't change the fact that every time she closed her eyes, she saw the unseeing and clouded over gaze on the blood-splattered face of the shinobi she had impaled with ice spikes.

Killing him had destroyed the last shred of innocence she had managed to retain over the course of an all-out war and her two lives. She knew that sleep would probably continue to evade her for tonight and if she managed to sleep that it would most likely be nightmare filled.

She was still deeply troubled by her actions and it would most likely take her a long time to make any kind peace with any of it, if she even could. She was extremely talented at the shinobi arts but she didn't know if she could continue down this violence filled path. Perhaps she wasn't cut out for being a ninja.

There were other career options she could take. Like Shisui had suggested at Itachi's birthday party, she had the talent and recipes to become an excellent baker. Even sensei and his friends had greatly enjoyed her cakes and everyone knew that Akimichi's had excellent taste in food. If not baking, she was smart enough to make money through business or some other field.

As Misaki looked at Haku's face sleeping peacefully on the pillow next to her it strengthened her crumbling resolve to continue down the shinobi path. While there were other career options she could pursue, none of them assisted her in protecting him. Being a baker or businesswoman wouldn't give her the necessary skills or strength to ensure his wellbeing.

Even in the fire country where there had been peace for the past five years, this mission illustrated there were still bandits and plenty of missing nin. Their client would've been robbed or killed if he hadn't had their strength to protect him. In this strife-filled world, only the strong were able to protect those precious to them.

If being a ninja enabled her to protect him from the horrors of the world, then it was all worth it. The numerous nightmares she was bound to suffer through, the violence she would commit under Konoha's command, and the lives she would be forced to take. All of it was worth it if she could ensure her beloved younger brother's safety and happiness.

She never wanted either of them to be unable to protect themselves from the cruelty and violence of others like they had been in Taku and Suzu. Their mother's dying wish had been for Misaki use everything at her disposal to protect her younger brother. If the path she was on enabled her to protect him, then so be it.

As Misaki finally fell into an uneasy sleep, her last thought before succumbing to her fatigue was that she was glad that Haku had not shown any signs of wanting to become a ninja. He was such a sweet and kind child; the acts that ninjas had to commit troubled Misaki who was much more jaded and would deeply trouble his gentle heart. The longer he stayed clear of the desire to become a ninja, the longer he would be able to retain his innocence.


	10. Chunin Exams

A/N:

To lilnudger82, I'm glad that you like Misaki and Haku's as siblings and enjoyed this chapter.

To darkdust27, thanks for the review!

To Shae Vizla, I felt like Choza's experience of almost dying in his first c-rank would make him want to make sure his genin is well trained. To Misaki, her most important priority is to make sure Haku is safe she is willing to dive head first into becoming a shinobi if that will enable her to protect him. They have already been threatened twice in their young lives and both times Misaki was near helpless so it has made her that much more determined to be able to protect Haku.

To the guests that reviewed, thanks for the reviews :D

To alice, thank you for the review!

To 8, funny that you should mention a big dragon-shaped ice monster, I plan on Misaki using her kekkei genkai quite creatively and she does have a fondness for dragons. I'm assuming that in the canon Zabuza had seen ice release being used and tutored Haku in its usage. Misaki doesn't know how her kekkei genkai has been used so she's not limited by preconceptions. Right now she is still a beginner at controlling and using it so she won't be doing anything too big for a little. But as she gains more and more aptitude expect her usage to become quite creative. Thanks for the suggestions.

To Shadow of god, that's good I've been trying to avoid making her a mary sue. For Misaki, she honestly doesn't give a shit about the missing nin she had killed. As she expresses in ch9 between her team's lives or the enemies she has no problem choosing their lives. It's more the action of taking another humans life after she had used the fact that she had kept her hands free of blood to soothe her conscious in her past life. She doesn't hate herself but she feels the loss of her last scrap of innocence keenly. I'm actually not sure what it smells like. I've never smelt what burnt flesh smells like thankfully but I have smelled burnt hair before and it smelled disgusting. For the genin, it was the smell combined with the acts they had just committed that caused them to throw up. Burning someone alive seems like it would be a particularly gruesome kill to witness.

 **Chapter 10: Chunin Exams**

Misaki jolted awake and breathed a sigh of relief as she realized it had all been a terrible nightmare. Ever since her first kill two months ago, she had suffered nightmares of the actual event and nightmares from events in her past life. Thankfully they had lessened in frequency after the first week and that was the first one she had in a while.

The nightmare she had just awoken from though was particularly bad. She had been dreaming of the events that had occurred in the Astronomy tower. However instead of choosing to lower her wand, she chose to kill Dumbledore. She had watched numbly as he fell from the tower as Severus burst through the doors. In her dream, Severus had been unable to hide the split second of disappointment at her actions that showed in his eyes before he hid his true thoughts.

After the war, Misaki had discovered a portrait of Severus that he had made during the brief period when he was headmaster. He had bequeathed Spinner's End to her in his will with the note stating while it might not be much that it could serve as her reprieve from the outside world. She had gone to Spinner's End and was overjoyed to discover that a sliver of her precious godfather remained in the world. While most of the populous of Hogwarts detested him, Severus had always been there for Draco.

The very first thing he said to Draco upon seeing him was that knowing that he lowered his wand against a powerful wizard like Dumbledore had simultaneously filled him with anger at Draco's stupidity for he was better trained than that but also the proudest he had ever been of his godson for choosing to the right thing.

People were always so quick to judge Slytherins and assumed the worst of them. He didn't know many people that would have the strength to defy the dark lord's wishes because it was the right thing to do when their family's wellbeing was at stake. He had told Draco that while he was marked, he had been between a rock and a hard place and tried his best.

Tears had fallen from his eyes when Severus had told him that. It had been hard walking out in public after his trial and subsequent exoneration. Though he had been exonerated, people openly spat at his feet as he passed, glared at him, or even confronted him about his actions.

He didn't mind the glaring but being spat at and yelled at so often by random people and just taking it had been hard. The old Draco would've had a scathing retort for each and every one of them but he hadn't fought back because he felt that in a way he deserved it and that nothing he could say would change their minds anyways.

He had felt like he had been aimlessly drifting through the passing time prior to talking to Severus. All the career choices he had been considering were no longer options. He had been considering being a warder or going into magical research. Who would want a former death eater to do the wards on their home or trust their research? Let alone if the ministry would even hire him.

When he had mentioned it in passing to his godfather, his godfather's response was to arch his eyebrow and silkily inquire why he would allow incompetent dunderheads to dictate what he chose to do in life. Severus had reminded him that time was fleeting and people only have one life to live.

Also he had encouraged Draco at least try to pursue his dreams. His biggest regret was that he had never attempted to pursue any of his. He had taken Severus' advice, applied and surprisingly been accepted to work as an unspeakable in the Department of Mysteries.

Even though wide awake she knew that he, of all people, would understand her choices in her new life it hadn't stopped her subconscious from subjecting her to that horrid nightmare. Despite the fact that it was 4:30am, Misaki knew she wouldn't be able to fall asleep after a nightmare like that.

Instead she got up and started writing down more of her past as fairy tales for Haku as she sat on the sill of her window to enjoy the sunrise. After the first initial night where Haku had read to her, she realized that writing about her past was therapeutic.

It reminded her of all the good things in her past life. It also had highlighted the vast differences between that world and this world. She sometimes wondered how her past life's friends and family would react to her choices and current occupation. Where killing could be avoided for the most part in her old world, it was unavoidable in this world.

She would probably always be at the very least slightly bothered by taking another human's life but Choza-sensei had told her that feeling that way was natural. The best thing was to learn how to best deal with it and find some sort of way of coping. For Misaki it was writing down her past and reading to Haku. Seeing the joy radiating from his innocent eyes simultaneously soothed Misaki and firmed her belief that her path was the right one.

The next two months after that horrible c-rank mission, their team had gone back to doing D-ranks. A fact that none of them had complained about. Choza-sensei had upped their team training by two hours each day and had taught them several more elemental jutsu.

Shogo had not been the most diligent about training before but after that c-rank mission he changed his attitude towards training. He took their team training more seriously and also began training to use his clan jutsus under Tsume. The past two months of more serious training was just starting to bear fruit. Shogo, while still not near Itachi's and Misaki's levels, had improved leaps and bounds in his ninjutsu, taijutsu, and speed. His genjutsu was still pretty horrible but he had improved at being able to detect and dispel them.

Itachi and Misaki had always been serious about their training so nothing changed in that regard for them. The only difference was that they both wanted to get stronger to be strong enough to be merciful.

Misaki had first been driven to become stronger solely to protect Haku, but as she thought about Choza-sensei's advice the night they had returned to Konoha she decided she wanted to become strong enough to avoid killing when possible. She would do whatever was necessary but if possible with the least amount of bloodshed.

After the first two months after their first kills, Choza-sensei had resumed getting the occasional c-rank mission for them. They still did d-rank missions but they averaged one to three c-rank missions a month. Now that they had proved their combat skills they were considered among the more experienced genin and were slated for c-ranks that could be done by genin. They had to kill once more in one of their c-rank missions but for the most part their c-ranks were free of fighting other ninja.

Six months after the mission, Choza-sensei had informed them that if the upcoming summer chunin exam in a month wasn't in Water country that he would've nominated them for it. No one outside of Kiri nin had attended a chunin exam in Water Country since fifteen years ago when the civil war fighting had caught several foreign genin team in its crosshairs and caused their deaths.

Though no outside competitors went to their chunin exam, Water was still one of the five main elemental countries and it would be a huge snub if another country decided to hold a simultaneous exam. Besides even if outside nin did attend and compete the chunin exam in Water as three genin with kekkei genkai there was no way in hell that they would be sent to Water's chunin exam.

Information coming out of Water country was rare so no one knew exactly what the Yondaime Mizukage was doing but there were terrible rumors whispered about sanctioned bloodline purges and other equally horrifying things. Konoha would never risk their genin by sending them into an unknown situation like that.

Choza knew that his genin would be ready for the chunin exams in Konoha five months from now in November. Over the past six months, Choza had taught each of his genin several elemental jutsu in preparation and he would continue to teach them what he could in the coming months. Skill wise they were going to be the cream of the crop at the exam.

Even if he had wanted to allow them more time to be genin, he recognized he wouldn't be able to. Other than wanting to give them more time to mature, he had no valid reasons for not nominating them for the exams. This November it will be close to two years since they graduated from the academy and they were more than skilled enough to make chunin.

At the last head of clans meeting, Fugaku had already made pointed inquiries about Itachi's progress, point blank told Choza that they seemed more than ready, and asked if he was planning on nominating them for the exams. It had been obvious to Choza that Fugaku was frothing at the bit to show off his prodigal heir's skills especially at an exam in Konoha.

Itachi was already at a weak chunin's level in all his skills. His mastery of his fully mature sharingan put his genjutsu skill at mid to high chunin. His Uchiha style taijutsu was a deadly force to be reckoned not even counting his skill at ninjutsu. His chakra reserve being average sized was the only weakness Itachi had. Even then he had much more chakra than first generation shinobis but overall it was average among non-first generation shinobis. Still even with an average sized chakra reserve, he would have no problems in the exams. Neither would Misaki.

By the time the November exams rolled around, she will have finished learning the katas from the crane style Gai was teaching her. Misaki's taijutsu was at a weak chunin's level and she was also at a weak chunin's levels in most of her skills. Her genjutsu skill level was the only thing below chunin level and even then it was at the level of a very strong genin.

Misaki didn't lack the necessary concentration or chakra control to use genjutsu; she just seemed to prefer to use other tools at her disposal. Her excellent control and creative usage of her ice release only continued to increase as she trained with it. The speed at which she could create ice had also increased. If she wanted to she could probably easily surprise and take chunin level ninja out with it now.

Shogo's taijutsu was now at a very strong genin's level, his speed at a strong genin's level, and his proficiency in his clan jutsus had greatly increased. His skill in taijutsu and clan ninjutsu along with his teammates' skills in genjutsu made up for his lack of genjutsu prowess.

Shogo was the only one of his genins that he would even be slightly concerned about. Over the past six months he had made vast improvements physically but Choza was worried about his rash nature. In battles he tended to charge in without thinking. Overall, Choza believed Shogo would be able to hold his own against most of the genin he ran across aside from his own teammates.

Choza knew that with the three of them they would be able to breeze through the first and second part of the exams. He knew there was no way that Misaki and Itachi didn't get promoted but he was not positive if Shogo would be promoted this time around.

Shogo still had a tendency for being reckless and not being strategic when he fought which could keep him from being promoted. He informed his genin of his decision to nominate them in the chunin exams five months from now and dismissed them early for the day as Chouji was sick with a cold.

After being dismissed Itachi and Shogo headed home. Haku was now in first grade at his civilian elementary school so he didn't get out of class until two o'clock. Misaki had four hours of free time before she needed to pick Haku up from school. Hana was in class, Taro probably had team training, and Misaki didn't feel like doing more training at the moment.

On her way to her favorite café to grab a snack, she passed the shinobi library. As she was about to walk past the library, she remembered that she had wanted to check something out after hearing about it in the academy but she had forgotten about it until just now when she passed by the shinobi library.

She showed her ID to the ninja behind the library counter and headed to the genin section. Browsing through the titles, she found the book she wanted and sat down to read it.

During her time at the academy, Akira-sensei had briefly touched on the topic of seals during one lesson. Misaki had thought that seals sounded similar to ancient runes from Akira's brief explanation and had decided to look more into seals hours before she had been approached by Itachi to meet his parents. After meeting his parents, Misaki had forgotten all about seals and wanting to look more into it.

As she sat in the library and read the only book on seals, she was thrilled to find that her original assumption was correct. While not the same, there were some similarities between sealing and ancient runes.

Ancient runes had been one of her favorite classes and once upon a time she had considered becoming a ward expert. She checked out the rudimentary book she was reading and resolved to ask Choza-sensei about seals.

Unfortunately Choza-sensei didn't know much about seals and he mentioned that the few people well-versed in seals would be unlikely to help her. Choza knew that Misaki was definitely intelligent enough to be able to pick up the art of sealing even without much guidance. Knowing that, he had cautioned Misaki that sealing was a dangerous art and asked when she got to the point where she was actually making seals to do so under the supervision of another shinobi.

Misaki found that despite the differences between ancient runes and seals there were enough similarities that she was able to easily comprehend the basics of the art of sealing. Some of the key differences are that with ancient runes a person could only use the surface area available to etch runes into and runes were used mostly for protection.

With seals, you had to anchor the center of the seal with chakra to whatever you were sealing or drawing the seal on. After anchoring the center, one could write past the paper they were drawing on or other various surfaces.

When you completed the seal and sealed it, all the kanji would compress and the resulting size of the seal depended on how many layers there was and how much kanji was in the seal. Her handwriting and kanji had always been extremely neat so she hadn't needed to improve them at all to use in seals.

According to the book she had read, the easiest way to utilize seals was to use specialized sealing paper and chakra infused ink. Skilled seal practitioners could utilize seals on just about any surface and apply touch seals but it would be a long time before Misaki was close to being that proficient at seals.

As sealing paper and ink were expensive, Misaki purchased only a small amount of each. Eventually she would be able to imbue ink with chakra on her own but she hadn't worked on let alone mastered that skill yet.

After a month of dissecting available seals like storage scrolls and explosive seals as well as finishing reading the book on seals, Misaki was ready to try her hand at replicating a seal. She had practiced writing out the seals but had yet to imbue it with chakra. After Choza-sensei's words of caution, she had agreed to make seals under his supervision until she proved that she could do it safely.

Itachi, Shogo, and Choza-sensei stood off to the side as Misaki ignited her first ever explosive seal and tossed in into the trees on training ground 14.

"So… how much chakra did you put in that Misaki?" Shogo asked aghast as he looked the smoking crater where trees used to exist on training ground 14. The resulting explosion from her explosive seal had decimated the area it landed in and showered the training ground in slightly smoking woodchips.

Choza pinched the bridge of his nose as he looked at the destruction his genin had wrought. He wasn't looking forward to having to plant a bunch of trees. The rule about training grounds was if a person messed it up to that extreme they had to fix it or pay for someone else to fix it.

"Not that much… comparable to what I put into my water release gunshot jutsu." Misaki stated as she slowly took in all the destruction her seal had caused.

Hearing Misaki's response, Choza felt the slight migraine that had started to form at all the destruction grow a little. "Misaki, for the explosive seals you can purchase generally have around double to triple the amount of chakra used for a replacement technique. Not the amount of chakra they put into a C-rank jutsu. Even then the amount of chakra you put in your c-rank jutsu's is double that what normal people use. I've noticed that you have more chakra than most jonin. With a blast radius that large, there is a higher chance of injuring comrades or even yourself."

He had never mentioned to Misaki just how much chakra she had than the average genin. But judging from her reaction he should have. When he mentioned how much more chakra she had than other genin her age, she looked stunned.

The academy teachers were supposed to talk to each academy student about the size of their chakra reserves. As Misaki had only been in the academy for one year, maybe she had missed that lesson. Thank goodness she had listened to his advice and waited to test her first seal with him there, an explosion that size could have seriously injured someone.

Seals interested Misaki greatly but without a formal teacher and as there were no other books on sealing in the shinobi library, it was a lot of trial, experimentation, and error. She made sure to excise extreme caution and use minute amounts of chakra when she replicated seals.

One day as she was examining a storage seal she had made while Haku did his homework, Haku stopped doing his homework and came up to Misaki. Seeing that he wanted her full attention, she put the storage seal down and gestured for him to sit on the couch seat next to her.

Haku sat down and spoke the words she had dreaded coming out of his mouth since she had her first kill. "Nee-chan, I decided I want to become a shinobi too."

"Are you sure Haku? Why do you want to become a shinobi? Being a shinobi isn't all fun and games. It is very dangerous. There are a lot of other safer or fulfilling career options." Misaki asked. She wouldn't stop him if that was truly his wish but she wanted to make sure that he wasn't becoming a shinobi because he thought it was cool or that the techniques they could do were awesome.

"Misaki-nee I'm sure. I want to be able to protect my precious people like you do! I know it won't be easy but I want to at least try. If you have time can you train me like kaa-chan trained you?" Haku replied with an earnest and determined expression on his face.

Misaki closed her eyes. "Very well, if it is truly what you want I will enroll you in the academy in the coming spring. If at any point you decide it is not something you want to do all you have to do is say the word. Of course I will train you Haku-kun. Don't expect me to go easy on you because you're my baby brother though."

At Misaki's agreement, Haku grins happily and scampered off to finish his homework. Watching him happily do his homework, Misaki was tempted to rescind her agreement but she could tell that he was determined and would fight to go to the academy. He was almost as stubborn as she could be. Her stubbornness had definitely rubbed off on Haku.

Even knowing all of this, she was still tempted to try to convince him to change his mind. She knew she was a skilled enough manipulator that she could easily influence him into changing his decision. But though it was for his safety, she didn't want to damage their bond by manipulating him to that extent. One day once he was old enough, he would realize what she had done. Besides who knows, he might not enjoy the academy and decide that being a shinobi is not for him.

She was unhappy about his decision but at the same time she realized if he became a shinobi he would also be able to protect himself. There were pros and cons to him going down this path. The only thing she could do was prepare him as best as she could for the harsh life of a shinobi and be there to pick up the pieces if he needed her to.

Shortly after that conversation with Haku, she started him on the physical conditioning exercises her mother had started her on as well as the basic chakra control exercises. She begins training him in the afternoons on the days she doesn't meet Gai-sensei for taijutsu training. As she watched him try to stick the leaf to his hand, Misaki could tell Haku's chakra control was a lot steadier than hers had been when she first started. It doesn't surprise her though as she had an entire adult's worth of magic reserves converted to chakra already at her disposal when she first started.

As she trained Haku she was also slowly but surely improving her fuinjutsu skills. By the time of the chunin exams she was able to replicate storage seals, explosive seals, and smoke bomb seals. The morning of the chunin exams, Misaki felt excited but slightly nervous as she walked to the entrance of the exams with Itachi and Shogo.

When they entered the exam room, Misaki was glad to see Masashi, Keiko, and Atsushi also were taking the chunin exams for the first time. She didn't know the Aburame girl on Masashi's team nor Atsushi very well but it was nice to see some familiar faces.

The instant her team had walked in the genin in the room had given them predatory glances. The older leaf genin in the exam room hadn't given them as predatory of glances as foreign teams had but they still stared at them.

It was slightly unnerving to have a hundred and forty or so genin staring at you. But Misaki could understand why they caught everyone's attention. At ten years old, she and Itachi were by far the youngest competitors in the exam. The next youngest were Masashi's team and Shogo who were all 14 or 15.

The proctor, Yamanaka Inoichi, walked into the room and ordered all the genin to come up and take a slip of paper with their seat number on it. Once they were all seated, chunin proctors passed out the exams and Inoichi explained the rules of the exam. "It is an hour-long written test with ten questions. Nine of the questions which you must all answer correctly are hypothetical situations that a ninja may encounter as a chunin. Examinees have to examine the information given to determine the best course of action. The last question would be administered at the end of the exam that will also allow genin to pass even if they don't complete the exam. Only genin with the correct answer will pass. Each genin starts with ten points and if they lose all their points they and their team are eliminated from the exam. Cheating is not allowed and every time a genin was caught they will lose five points."

Misaki looked down at her exam and perused the questions quickly. They had thought it would be a written exam based on information they had accrued over their genin career. The three of them had spent the last few days before the exam studying together.

Even though the exam wasn't what they expected, Itachi and she would have no issue answering the hypothetical situation but strategizing was not Shogo's strong point. Looking across the room and seeing his worried face, she can tell he knows it too. However as she examined each hypothetical question on the exam more closely, she realized there definitely wasn't only one correct answer for any of the questions.

Thirty-five minutes into the exam, Itachi checked on his teammates. So far fourteen teams had been disqualified for cheating. Misaki didn't seem worried at all as she sat watching the clock. Shogo on the other hand was ruffling his hand through his hair and his eyebrows were furrowed with frustration as he stared down at his exam scribbling down answers and then erasing them.

Seeing that there is only twenty-five minutes left for the test, Itachi hoped that Shogo realized the true objective of the exam. Upon receiving his exam, Itachi had realized that most genin would not be able to correctly analyze and come up with the correct answer for each hypothetical situation. Plus there were multiple correct answers for each situation.

Those facts and the fact that five points were deducted each time someone cheated meant the true purpose was not to cheat but to realize that the only true question in the test would be the last one. Inoichi had stated that there was only one correct answer not answers. But as Itachi looked at Shogo's exasperated face he knew that Shogo had not realized the true purpose.

His mind rapidly calculated the best way to enlighten Shogo to the true purpose or help him the answers but there was no feasible way Itachi could do so from his seat position. Misaki was seated in the very back right corner of the room, he was seated in the second row closest to the exit on the left hand side, and Shogo was seated all the way right in the front by the proctor.

Shogo looked down at his mostly empty test in frustration as ten minutes remained in the test. Another six teams had been disqualified in the past 15 minutes. He wasn't good at analyzing or strategizing like his teammates were.

He had been struggling to answer the questions until about five minutes ago when he realized the true purpose of the test. Though he knew now with only fifteen minutes left in the test most of the genin who had finished turned their papers face down and those that hadn't were zealously guarding their papers.

The genin in his vicinity had all either been caught and disqualified or they had their papers turned face down. There was no one seated around him left to cheat from. His only chance was the tenth question. As the minutes until the test finished counted down, he hoped he didn't screw it up for his other teammates.

After he called out that they would now be getting the 10th question, Inoichi warned that if the genin answer the question incorrectly that they will not be allowed to take the exams ever again but if they forfeited before hearing the question that they would be allowed to retake the test another time.

Hearing that answering wrong would disqualify them for genin exams in the future caused a lot genins to start forfeiting. Atsushi raised his hand causing Masashi and Keiko to also be disqualified. Shogo almost raised his hand too. He didn't want to be stuck as a genin forever. But as he was about to raise his hand, he realized that if he did he would also be disqualifying Misaki and Itachi.

Shogo knew that if not for him they were skilled enough to have taken the genin exam last November in Suna. It was only him that had not been strong enough. He didn't want to hold them back again. If he could never retake the chunin exams he would just have to be the best damn genin out there so they gave him a field promotion.

Decision made, he kept his hand firmly glued to the table as other genin raised their hands and were disqualified by Inoichi. By the time people finished forfeiting only forty-two out the ninety genin that had passed the written portion were left.

Looking at the seated genin Inoichi said, "There is not a tenth question just as there is not only one correct answer for any of those questions. A chunin must be able to process the information they're given and discern the truth from misdirection and lies. A ninja's mind is one of his sharpest tools. In any of those hypothetical questions, there are multiple paths that are equally correct. However by me stating that there you must answer all the questions correctly, those of you that chose to take my words at face value wasted precious time trying to figure out each correct answer. Some also were more hesitant to cheat off of your neighbors as they might not have had the correct answer as well. The purpose of this exam was not to cheat but for genin to use their mind to realize that there is no way each situation only had one correct answer and the only question with a correct answer would be the tenth one. Or for them to have the fortitude risk everything and face the unknown."

Shogo breathed out a sigh of relief when he found out there wasn't a tenth question before turning to his teammates with a giant grin. They had passed the first portion of the chunin exams. Just as he was about to ask them if they had realized the true purpose of the test, Gemna opened the door and announced he would be taking them to the next portion of the exam immediately.

There were five teams from Konoha including them, three teams from Suna, three teams from Ame, two teams from Kusa, and one team from Taki left in the exam.

Unsurprisingly there weren't any teams from Kiri and Iwa at Konoha for the chunin exams. According to Choza-sensei, Kiri preferred to have their shinobi take their genin exams and while they had a peace treaty it was pretty much a known fact that Iwa detested Konoha shinobi.

There also weren't any teams from Kumo but Misaki would've been more surprised if there were after the whole Hyuuga kidnapping incident a few months prior. Even as a genin, Misaki had heard about how the Kumo ambassador had attempted to kidnap the Hyuuga heiress. The rumor mill in Konoha was still alive and strong.

All of the genin stared at the imposing barbed wire fence surrounding the forest of death as they signed death waivers and were handed an earth scroll. The starting bell rang as the gates opened and they all dashed into the forest of death.

As Misaki, Shogo, and Itachi leapt from branch to branch Shogo asked, "So… what's the plan?"

"Judging from the way all of the genin were eying us I'd say the plan is for us to make our way to the tower as fast as we can and set up traps to slow down anyone following our trail. We don't need to hunt down any team. They'll be gunning for us. What do you guys think?" Misaki replied.

"I concur. Those genin stared at us as if we were the desserts you make that Taro salivates over. They will definitely come after us. I'll take point with Shogo bringing up the rear." Itachi stated before they all upped their speed.

Misaki internally laughed a little at the way Itachi always seemed to correlate things in relation to dessert. She had thought she was a true sweet-aholic before meeting Itachi. Her love of desserts paled in comparison to his obsession with sweets. Taro had introduced Itachi to pocky a few months back and since then he always carried a box or two on him. In fact, she bet he probably had a stash of pocky somewhere on him right now.

She pitied the fool who ever tried to come between Itachi and his sweets or left their sweets unattended near him. The last time she had made chocolate croissants, Itachi had slyly eaten the last one as Shogo and Taro bickered over it. At their horrified expressions, he had shrugged before he stated with a completely deadpan expression that as they were too busy arguing to eat that he decided to help them solve their problem. She had laughed for ages at their outraged expressions.

Just as Misaki was musing whether or not Itachi would actually share his pocky with Shogo or her as the only food they had was ration bars, Shogo signaled that there was a genin team incoming.

An older team of leaf genin took a look at their headbands before darting off to hunt down some other team. At the older genins' actions, smiles lit up all of their expressions as they continued their path towards the tower. None of them had wanted to fight fellow Konoha shinobi. It was nice to see Konoha shinobi looking out for their own.

They continued their pace for another thirty minutes before Shogo caught wind of another incoming team. This time the team that approached them was not another leaf team. However instead of being smart and ambushing them, not that they would've been able to with Shogo's nose, the team of kusa ninjas step out into the open.

"Hiro, isn't this our lucky day? We were lucky enough to run into the fresh meat. Hand over your scroll and we'll let you leave unscathed." One of the kusa nin stated as he swung a kunai around on one of his fingers.

Unimpressed, Misaki rolled her eyes at his attempt at being intimidating. Obviously they didn't have full confidence in their ability to take them down or they would be fighting already not talking. Besides these idiots didn't even realize she had already frozen the soles of their shoes to the ground as the tallest one had been talking.

Not only that but they were making eye contact with Itachi. Didn't they read up on anything about Konoha before attending the chunin exams? Itachi had a bit fat Uchiha crest on one of his arm guards.

Itachi switched on his sharingan and put the Kusa nin that had spoken under genjutsu as Shogo swiftly tied up the guy on the left as he was freaking about the ice climbing up his body and Misaki knocked out the one under Itachi's genjutsu with a swift chop to the back of the neck.

Itachi turned to the last conscious Kusa nin and held out his hand. The Kusa nin scrambled to pull his scroll out of the unconscious guy's vest and toss it at Itachi who frowned at the sight of another earth scroll. Seeing Itachi frown, the ninja began to inch backwards only to release a sigh of relief as they left the clearing.

Well that was rather anticlimactic Misaki thought as they raced away in the direction of the tower. Misaki had known that they weren't that strong the minute they chose to try to bargain rather than just attack. But she hadn't expected them to be that weak.

They continued for another fifteen minutes before a team ambushed them. Unlike the Kusa genin, this team didn't waste any time trying to bargain. Still their ambush failed even before they attempted it. Shogo had known they were trying to ambush them and had signaled a warning. Aside from that fact, they moved rather slowly.

Misaki dodged a slow axe kick before kicking the ninja in the abdomen. To her surprise her kick threw him into a tree where he slumped over. Suspicious she carefully approached him thinking it was a trap only to find he was actually knocked out.

Similarly Shogo and Itachi made quick work of their opponents. Shogo's opponent was unable to dodge his gatsuga and Itachi's opponent had quailed at how quickly they defeated his teammates and at the sight of his sharingan. He raised his hands in surrender and handed their scroll over. The ame nin had a heaven scroll which they pocketed before making their way to the tower.

Ebisu popped out of the two scrolls when Itachi and Shogo had unfurled them. He congratulated them and informed them that they had beaten the previous record. At 106 minutes they had beaten the old record by 20 minutes.

"So… anyone think that the teams we faced were ridiculously weak?" Shogo asked as they relaxed in the room they had to stay in for the next five days. As he bit into his pork bun, he mentally thanked whoever had thought to stock the tower with actual food.

"Yeah I was thinking that too… The kusa nin nearly pissed his pants when he thought Itachi frowned at him. Then again it's not surprising considering they chose to try to go after who they'd thought was the weakest team." Misaki said in between giggles at the fact that a grown ass sixteen year old had been utterly terrified by a rather short ten year old boy. Even Misaki was slightly taller than Itachi.

"That's true but it's not just them being weak. We're overqualified for this exam."

Misaki raised one of her eyebrows at Itachi's words.

"With Choza-sensei's intensive training combined with my Otou-san's training I'm able to defeat most of my cousins that are chunin." Itachi said in response to the question in Misaki's eyes as he opened a box of strawberry pocky.

Itachi's words made sense. Choza-sensei had mentioned something about how he would've nominated them for the summer chunin exams if they hadn't been held in Kiri.

She just hadn't realized how advanced skill wise they were in comparison to other genin. She knew that she and Itachi were both considered prodigies but the some of the genin in the exams were in their mid to late teens with much more training.

The only genin they routinely sparred with aside from the members of their team were Taro, Eiichi, and Haruka. As Choza-sensei and Inoichi-sensei were good friends they would spar against them from time to time. Misaki had assumed the skill gap was due to them not being a combat oriented team.

Several hours after they first arrived, the Konoha team that had turned away from fighting them arrived.

As they spotted them in the dining hall, the girl on the team let out an impressed whistle, "How long have you guys been here?" At their response of six hours she said, "Man, I'm glad we decided before the exam to not fight fellow Konoha shinobi unless we absolutely had to. Whoever decided to ambush you guys must've gotten a nasty shock, huh. I'm Tanaka Natsumi and my teammates are Aburame Taka and Narita Daiki."

"Both teams did." Misaki said with mischief glinting in her eyes as they all introduced themselves to the older genin.

They spent the next five days doing what training they could, relaxing, and hanging out. Over the next five days, genin teams began to trickle in to the tower. Itachi, Misaki, and Shogo mostly hung out as they couldn't do much training because they didn't want to show their future opponents their skills.

During the five days, Misaki clicked really well with Natsumi. She was a bubbly, fun-loving fifteen year old with auburn hair and sparkling green eyes. Shogo really liked Natsumi a lot. In fact by the way he blushed around her when he thought no one was looking, Misaki was pretty sure he had a crush on Natsumi. Misaki could definitely see what Shogo saw in her. Not only was she pretty and bubbly but she had a great sense of humor.

As a byproduct of hanging out with Natsumi, they also hung out with her teammates. Itachi and Misaki got along relatively well with her teammates but Shogo and Taka did not get along at all. Misaki didn't know if it was because Taka could tell Shogo had a crush on his teammate or if they just rubbed each other the wrong way. Either way Misaki could cut the tension between them with a kunai.

On the fifth day, the genin that had passed the second part of the exams were brought to an arena. Of the 14 teams that had entered the exam only 5 teams had passed. Two teams from Konoha had passed which were Natsumi's team and Misaki's team. One team each from Suna, Kusa, and Ame had passed as well. Two genin from the Kusa team and one from the ame team declined to continue to the finals which left twelve finalists.

The hokage congratulated them on passing before telling them the first round matchups. The lineup was Shogo against Narita Daiki, Misaki against a Suna genin named Kondo Junya, Natsumi was matched against a Suna nin named Kato Akira, Aburame Taka against Ame nin named Nakamura Chihiro, Itachi against an Ame nin named Fujii Kaoru, and the remaining Suna nin against the remaining Kusa nin.


	11. Finals

A/N:

To lilnudger82, thanks for the review! Glad that you like the chunin exams so far :)

To Shae Vizla, thank you for the review. When Misaki was thinking about choosing another path, she didn't think about becoming an author because as you guessed she hasn't wanted to share them with anyone else yet. From your comments, I think you'll enjoy this current chapter :) Yeah Choza is quite protective over his genin and as a parent himself, he firmly believes it is better for them to be over than underprepared.

To Shadow of God, thank you for the review and suggestions. I agree with you about that. Maybe they all entered their genin teams because they wanted to show their genin they needed to take their training seriously and it was safest to try the exams in Konoha who knows. With how strong Sasuke and Naruto were team 7 had a slight chance of doing well in the exam. But I always felt like the rookie 9 was unprepared for the chunin exams and shouldn't have entered. I felt like team 8 and 9 senseis chose to enter them just because Kakashi entered his team. I do plan on having them duke it out but they won't reveal the full extent of their skills. As the chunin exam finals are about impressing future clients, there will be some showmanship but Itachi and Misaki are more than skilled enough to impress future clients without revealing all of their skills.

To Gremlin Jack, thanks for the review. You're right with a month long gap there is no reason for people to drop out. I had forgotten that the only person that dropped out due to injuries in the canon was Kabuto. I do plan on doing the month-long gap. I went back and edited the end of chapter 10 after seeing your review. I changed it so that they just decided to not continue to the finals.

To Loner kid, thanks for the review and suggestion. I will rotate putting it into the crossover section every once and a while when I post a new chapter. I realize that my fanfiction is crossover but as the crossover section is buggy I opted to put it into the Naruto section as it is a mostly a Naruto fanfiction with the addition of Draco/Misaki. While my story does touch on topics from Harry Potter it is mainly about the Naruto world.

 **Chapter 11: Deals, Training, and Finals**

Itachi, Misaki, and Shogo were greeted by Choza-sensei and Inoichi-sensei as they left the arena.

"Congratulations on passing the first and second portion of the exam. Team lunch at Yakiniku barbeque on Inoichi!" Choza gleefully proclaimed as they walked towards Yakiniku.

At his genin's quizzical glances at Inoichi's slightly put out expression Choza said, "Ignore Inoichi's gloomy expression. He's just sad that he lost his bet."

As they sat down in Yakiniku Inoichi explained, "Choza bet me that his genin would pass my exam and that at least one of his genin would get the purpose of my exam. When I saw Itachi's and Misaki's blank test papers, I realized you both realized the true purpose."

"You guys left both of your exams blank? What if you had been wrong?" Shogo asked incredulously.

"From looking at the hypothetical situations posed there was no one correct answer for any of them. There were multiple equally correct answers and Inoichi-sensei had stated only the genin with the correct **answer** not answers would pass so I realized that the true question that we needed to answer correctly had to be the tenth one." Itachi explained as Misaki nodded in agreement.

After they finished eating, Choza-sensei told them that he wanted them to meet him at training grounds at 8 tomorrow morning for a little bit before they said their goodbyes and all parted ways.

Haku was playing with one of Hana's puppies outside in the Inuzuka clan compound when he spotted Misaki-nee making her way to him. Instantly, he stopped playing with the puppy and raced over to her. He quickly scanned her person looking for possible injuries.

Once he assured himself she was uninjured, he gave her a long hug. The five days that Misaki-nee had been in the chunin exams had been the longest amount of time he had ever been separated from his nee-chan. While he really liked Tsume-oba, Hana-nee, and Kiba-kun he had missed Misaki-nee a lot.

"Congratulations on passing Nee-chan! I knew that you would be awesome enough to make it to the finals!"

Smiling at Haku's faith in her, Misaki thanked Tsume for all of her help while Haku gathered his belongings. That night Misaki and Haku went out to one of their favorite restaurants to celebrate her making it to the finals. After reading Haku his nightly bedtime story, Misaki tucked him in and left for her own room.

Sitting at her desk in her room, she thought about what had occurred during the chunin exams. The first and second parts of the exam had been easy. However as they had been making their way to the tower, they passed a team of dead genin.

Genma-sempai had stated that lethal force was permitted in the exam but Misaki had not been expecting her fellow genins to use it. This was a promotion exam not a mission or a fight on a battlefield.

While Misaki had yet to come close to being injured or losing her life, seeing the dead genin in the middle of the exam had made her realize the risk. As she sat in the tower for the next five days, she had stewed over what Haku would do if she were to suddenly die on a mission.

While she had managed to pay off the loan for the money the academy stipend had given her, she and Haku didn't have much left in the way of savings. There was still some of her parents' savings left but Haku would have to rely on the stipend if something happened to her. If he chose not to become a shinobi, he would have to repay any free grant money he received while at the Academy would need to be repaid as well.

She stared at the first notebook filled with stories of her past written in it as she contemplated the best course of action. Though she had written out the stories in novel form, she had refrained from attempting to publish any of her stories for several reasons.

Firstly, a lot of the stories she told Haku contained Harry in them and she knew how he felt about people telling his life story. When they became good friends after the war, they had compared school stories.

Misaki had been amazed to find out the truth behind all the rumors of outlandish adventures the golden trio had underwent through their school years. It had been interesting to find out what was fact and what was fiction. There was a lot more fact to the rumors than she had thought.

The second reason was with the c-rank missions Misaki had been doing they had been comfortable finance wise. The stories of her past life were precious to her. She hadn't seen the need to share them with the world when she and Haku weren't struggling financially.

Seeing the dead genin team had been a wake-up call though. If something happened to her, Misaki didn't want Haku to have to struggle. Harry wasn't here in this world and Haku's needs came first. She didn't think that he would mind as he wouldn't have to deal with any resulting fame but if he did Misaki would have to apologize to Harry in the afterlife.

Mind made up, Misaki pulled out the first notebook and began making a few changes in it. She was planning on keeping all the things the same as what she had told Haku except one thing.

If the books became popular, it would be difficult for Misaki to hear the word Hogwarts thrown about. Sharing it with Haku was one thing but Misaki didn't want constant reminders of the beautiful Scottish castle that she would never see again.

As she continued reading through the stories in the first notebook, she changed the school's name from Hogwarts to Toadwarts. While not as cool sounding, it would spare Misaki the pain of hearing the word Hogwarts thrown about and was an ode to Neville for the bravery he had shown in the final battle as well as the forgiveness he had shown her after the war.

She had been a right terror to him during their school years and expected to have to fight a long uphill battle to make amends. When she apologized, he had gazed deep into her eyes for a few moments gauging her sincerity before he gave her a firm handshake and forgave her. She had been humbled by the genuine forgiveness Neville showed his schoolyard tormentor.

The morning after the conclusion of the second part of the chunin exams, Choza looked at his genin and was proud of all the growth they had achieved in the past twenty months.

"I just want to say I'm proud of all of you guys for making it to the finals. As all three of you are in the finals I will help train each of you but not be any of your guys' main sensei for the next month. Itachi, your father already mentioned to me that he would be taking over your training for the next month. Tsume also wants to take over your training for the next month Shogo. I will help you guys train when you're not doing clan training. Misaki, Gai wants to help you prepare for the finals and I will also train you when he's not. He told me to tell you to meet him at training ground 20 tomorrow at 8. This will be the last team meeting for the next month."

Itachi, Misaki, and Shogo thank Choza-sensei for his praise and help. They are all about to turn and leave when Choza-sensei motions for them to wait.

"One last thing, there is a dual purpose to the chunin exam finals. Obviously one is to showcase you are worthy of becoming a chunin. They are not just judging you purely on how powerful you are. A chunin must not only be strong but resourceful and cunning. The second purpose is to impress future clients with your strength. You are all representatives of Konoha strength once you step into that arena. However, whatever you skills you choose to use during the finals will become common knowledge not just to your clients but potential future opponents. I'm not telling you guys not to try hard to win just to keep in mind that a smart ninja doesn't reveal all of his tricks when you choose how much to reveal."

The three teammates contemplated the advice Choza-sensei gave them as they all went off in separate directions. Shogo knew that it was smart advice but if he won his first match he knew he didn't stand a chance against either of his teammates unless he gave it his all. He didn't know if he could resist the opportunity to go all out and test his skills against theirs. He also really wanted to be promoted.

Leaving the training ground after six hours of intensive physical exercise and taijutsu training with Gai, Misaki gingerly walked towards her apartment. When she had arrived at training ground 20, Gai had enthusiastically congratulated her on making it into the finals before starting her on much more speed and endurance training than she had ever had to do before.

After three hours of various speed and endurance training exercises, he had her practice her katas before he proceeded to spar against her. He had been training her to learn how to fight without looking her opponent in the eyes ever since she had been assigned as Itachi' teammate but not to this extent. He had taught her to keep her eyes on her opponent's shoulders and use muscle movement to gauge their next attack.

Usually he would just use flowery words to encourage her to not glance at his eyes mid fight. But today anytime her eyes had met his while they were sparring, he dished out faster and harder punches and kicks until she averted her eyes again.

She had though his training was intense before but after this morning's session, she knew that this was month was going to be far more rigorous. Before she had left, he said," Good job training today Misaki-chan! As always your flames of youth never fail to impress me! For the next month you have training with Choza-sensei on Tuesdays and Thursdays and training with me on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays for the next month. I've requested only close by missions for the next month so I shouldn't miss any training days. If I do, Choza-sensei will meet you here instead of me."

After training with Gai she was exhausted and needed a break. But she had an appointment she needed to get to. She had finished changing what she wanted to change in her first book yesterday so she dropped by her apartment to pick up the finished novel, took a quick shower, and ate a fast lunch before heading to Leaf Publishing.

According to her research, it was one of the larger publishers in Konoha and all of fire country but out of the big firms they were most willing to give new writers a chance. Yesterday, she had made an appointment for today at two o'clock with one of their editors.

Toyo Megumi skeptically looked at the young kunoichi sitting across from her. She hadn't expected her two o'clock appointment to be a prepubescent girl. Still an appointment was an appointment, so she began to read the neatly written story in her notebook. As she delved further and further into the novel, the more impressed she became.

This girl, Misaki, was an extremely eloquent and talented writer. The more she had read of her novel the more engrossed she had become in it. After reading the first four chapters, she knew she had to get her hands on this.

"You wrote this yourself? I'm prepared to offer you a flat fee or royalties if you grant our publishing house the license to publish your novels."

"Yes, I wrote it myself. I want royalties not a flat fee." Misaki responded instantly. There was no way she was going to take a flat fee on her book. She knew that royalties yielded more than flat fees.

"Very well, then all there is left to do is negotiate a price. How does five percent of the retail price sound?"

There was no way Misaki was going to accept the lowball offer this editor had just made. Misaki wasn't a stranger to business negotiations like this editor obviously thought she was. She had owned a publishing house in her past life and knew that like in her past world authors here usually received anywhere from 8 to 14 percent of the published price so she responded, "I'm young not stupid. Fifteen percent of retail price."

"You might not be stupid but you're being ridiculous. You're a new author; we're taking a risk on publishing your book. Eight percent of retail price."

Misaki raised an eyebrow imperiously at Megumi's comment and scoffed, "I know I'm not being ridiculous. I saw your eyes light up as you read the chapters of my book. You know it's going to sell well. Stop wasting my time or I will go to another publishing house. You guys aren't the only major firm in Konoha."

At Misaki's ultimatum, Megumi was surprised. She looked so young Megumi had thought this would be an easy negotiation. "Fine ten percent of retail price is my best and final offer."

"Obviously, you didn't believe me when I said that I will go to another publishing house. Ten percent is highway robbery. Eleven percent on the first 1,000 copies sold, thirteen percent on the next 1,000 copies sold, and 15 percent on all other copies sold. Now do we have a deal or should I go to Konoha Books Publishing House." Misaki drawled as she languidly stood up from the chair.

Impressed, Megumi agreed to the deal. She couldn't believe a young girl just beat her in negotiations. The girl obviously had done her research or knew something about publishing houses and knew her book would be a hit.

"Good. I want to publish it under a pseudonym. I want to keep my privacy and do not wish to have my name well known. I want it in my contract that only you and I will know that I'm the author." Misaki said as she sat back down. She was still a novice kunoichi. She didn't want her name to be well known or to deal with any possible fame that might result from her book.

Megumi agreed to Misaki's stipulation before she pulled out a contract for her to sign.

With the issue of Haku's wellbeing in the case anything happened to her no longer weighing on her mind, Misaki focused all of her concentration on training for the upcoming finals.

Itachi wiped the sweat off his brow as his father gave him a small break from their rapid pace sparring. For the past month, his father had spent nearly every waking moment training him.

Fugaku had not felt like any of the foreign nin would be a challenge his son but from watching previous spars between him and his teammate, Misaki, he knew that it would most likely be the two of them in the final match. Fugaku didn't want Itachi to lose to his teammate but at least if he did, he was losing against another genius prodigy. Either way he wanted Itachi to illustrate the prowess of the Uchiha clan.

It was obvious to Itachi that his father felt like Misaki was the biggest threat as the first thing he had him do was copy a c-rank lightning jutsu using his sharingan. Aside from teaching him a lightning jutsu, he trained Itachi's speed, endurance, and taijutsu. He also taught him several complex genjutsu.

Out of all the competition, Itachi was most excited to face Misaki. She was his peer in terms of mental and physical skill. He truly did not know who would win between the two of them. Despite sensei's advice if she decided to go all out, he would be forced to as well in order to have a chance at winning the match. As he resumed sparring with his father, he wondered what she would choose to do.

After Shogo finished his last day of training with his aunt two days before the finals, he relaxed on the porch and scratched behind Masaru's ears. The past month of training had been awesome. He could feel the difference that it had made in regards to his strength.

He knew that Choza-sensei's advice was sound and knew that spilling too much about their skills would be a detriment but most of the jutsus he learned were known jutsus used by the Inuzuka clan already. He still hadn't decided if he was going to go all out against his teammates. He would decide if they ended up facing each other.

The morning before the finals, she dropped Haku off with Tsume, Hana, and Kiba so he could go to the stadium with them and sit next them during the finals. The past month Gai had pushed her past every possible limit. Her speed had increased exponentially and he had gauged her taijutsu at a mid-grade chunin's levels. Thanks to his tutelage, she felt prepared to face Itachi if they ended up fighting against each other.

Entering the contestant waiting box in the stadium, she made her way over to where Itachi and Shogo were already standing. They chatted for a few minutes as more people continued to pour into the stadium.

Five minutes after Misaki arrived, a Konoha shinobi who was proctoring the finals called for the genin fighting in the first match to enter the arena. Shogo gave them a jaunty wave before vaulting over the railing and landing in the arena. His opponent Narita Daiki, Natsumi's teammate, did the same.

"I'm not planning on revealing everything to future opponents even if we end up facing each other." Misaki said quietly to Itachi as she watched Shogo and Daiki bow to each other.

"Good, I won't either then." Itachi responded before turning his attention back to Shogo's match.

Down in the arena, the proctor called the start of the match. Shogo watched his opponent carefully waiting for him to make the first move so he could gauge how strong he was. Over the past month both sensei and Tsume-oba had drilled into his head that he needed to think before leaping into the fray.

Daiki stared Shogo down also waiting for him to make the first move. Tired of waiting, Daiki launched himself at Shogo and engaged in taijutsu. As shogo blocked and dodged Daiki's punches and kicks, he began to get a feel of Daiki's skill level. He was slightly slower than Shogo and judging from the sword strapped to his back Daiki has some skill in kenjutsu.

Deciding to test out his theory, Shogo upped his speed and began retaliating with brutal punches, kicks, and throwing weapons. After two solid kicks and a punch landed, Daiki leapt back putting some distance between him and Shogo before drawing his sword and rushing forward.

As Shogo had expected, Daiki was skilled in kenjutsu. Though Shogo was slightly faster, Daiki's sword increased his reach and forced him onto the defensive. Even with a longer reach, Daiki was unable to land a hit on Shogo. As he was on the defensive he used the beast human clone jutsu to transform Masaru into an identical copy of him.

Together they began using gatsuga forcing Daiki to focus only on dodging. If Shogo landed a gatsuga on Daiki they both knew that he was a goner. Daiki dodged his gatsuga for a third time and Shogo quickly used fire release great fireball jutsu to launch a fireball at where he would land for his dodge.

Daiki used the substitution jutsu to replace himself with one of the kunai littered in the arena before he threw a smoke bomb on the ground. Shogo wanted to crow in delight at Daiki's usage of a smoke bomb. With his Inuzuka nose, he didn't need his vision to find his opponent.

Confidently, he and Masaru leapt into the smoke and began attacking their opponent. The smoke slowly dissipated as Shogo launched his attack on Daiki.

However unlike earlier in the match Daiki seemed to keep slipping right out of his reach. Out of three swings, he had been unable to land a single one. Shogo was confused until he realized Daiki must have used the cover of smoke to cast a genjutsu. Dispelling the genjutsu, he barely dodged the sweep of Daiki's sword.

Shogo leapt back to a safe distance before shooting multiple fire balls from fire release art of the phoenix flower at Daiki. Daiki was able to dodge the fireballs but not the shuriken he had thrown using the fireballs as cover. As one shuriken sliced through the skin on his arm and the other impaled his thigh, Daiki cast another genjutsu on Shogo to get time to recover.

In his haste in casting the genjutsu he had forgotten to account for Shogo's nose. As the genjutsu hit Shogo, he knew immediately one had been cast because the smell of blood from the wounds he had inflicted on Daiki disappeared. He dispelled the genjutsu and lunged towards Daiki who only barely managed to dodge.

Knowing that his opponent was wounded boosted Shogo's confidence. With his over confidence however, he made a mistake. Confident that Daiki was on the run, he hadn't realized Daiki intentions until he punched through air instead of flesh and felt the cold steel of Daiki's sword against the back of his neck.

He hadn't realized he had been chasing a bushin. Daiki must have cast a secondary genjutsu while he was dispelling the genjutsu. A genjutsu that had tricked his nose into thinking the bushin was the real deal.

Chagrined at what his overconfidence had cost him, Shogo sheepishly surrendered. As the proctor announced Narita Daiki was the winner and the crowd roared, Shogo hoped his fight was impressive enough for him to be promoted before exiting the arena as the next two finalists were called down.

Misaki congratulated both fighters on a good match before she leapt into the arena. She hadn't been able to find much information about her opponent Kondo Junya but according to Choza sensei most shinobi from Suna were wind natured. As she inspected him while she waited for the proctor to start the match, she didn't see any indicators of what skill set he utilized.

As soon as the fight started he rushed at her and began a fairly decent taijutsu assault. He must be a taijutsu user. Against a normal strength genin, he would have been a tough opponent. Immediately Misaki could tell that his skill level was far below hers though. She didn't want to expose too much of her skills so as she dodged his blows and she retaliated using her superior taijutsu.

After the training for a month with a taijutsu master, Junya was unable to dodge any of her blows. Punch after punch and kick after kick landed as he was tossed around the ring like a rag doll. A few minutes later after she slammed him to the ground with a kick, Misaki put her foot on his neck and pressed lightly on his throat.

He raised his hand in surrender and the proctor pronounced Misaki as the winner. Looking into the cheering crowd, she spotted Haku and shot him a smile before returning to the box where the other competitors were.

During the next match Natsumi lost to the Suna nin Kato Akira. Natsumi was a skilled taijutsu user but against a puppeteer, she was unable to win. Following her match, her teammate Aburame Taka beat the ame nin Nakamura Chihiro.

Misaki shivered while she watched his opponent shriek in terror as she was covered in bugs that were draining her chakra. His opponent passed out from either terror or lack of chakra, Misaki wasn't sure to be honest.

She had never seen an Aburame in action but watching the expert way Taka commanded his hive she almost felt a little bad for the suna nin that had defeated Natsumi. Taka would be a formidable opponent and being a puppeteer wouldn't save him from Taka's kikaichu. It was bound to be an interesting fight. Judging from the pale look on his face as he realized that Taka would be his next opponent he realized that it would be a tough fight as well.

Unsurprisingly, Itachi made quick work of his opponent as Misaki had. No one in the stadium even knew if the ame nin was a skilled genin. He fell prey to a genjutsu from Itachi right at the beginning of the match. He was pinned to the stadium wall by kunai through his shirts and pants with Itachi holding a kunai to his kidney by the time he realized and dispelled it. During the last match the Suna nin got knocked out by the Kusa's ninja.

The second round matches were Narita Daiki versus Misaki, Kato Akira versus Aburame Taka, and Itachi versus Kameha Yasu, a kusa ninja.

Though Daiki had defeated Shogo, it had taken a lot of his energy to do so while Misaki barely expended any energy defeating her opponent. She already also knew she was much faster than him. He knew it too from the way he immediately drew his sword at the beginning fight. His skill in kenjutsu didn't help much against a vastly faster opponent. Misaki kicked him into the wall and then punched him in the gut. In the split second that he gasped from the impact of hitting the wall and the punch to his gut his grip on his sword loosened slightly. Misaki used that opportunity to wrench the sword from his grasp. She tossed it to the side and held a kunai to his heart. Knowing when he was beat, Daiki forfeited.

Akira and Taka's match was interesting to watch. They were pretty evenly matched in terms of speed and taijutsu skill. Taka was adept with earth jutsu and utilizing his kikaichu while Akira was skilled at wind jutsu and using his puppet.

Neither opponent was able to land very many hits on each other as they were both very skilled at evading. Many times it looked like Akira managed to injure Taka only for it to turn out to be a bug clone and Akira would swap places with his puppet to avoid damage.

In the end their match ended in a double knockout. Taka's kikaichu drained Akira's chakra rendering him unconscious and the poison from Akira's puppet paralyzed Taka.

Kameha Yasu, the kusa nin, had already seen Itachi knock out his opponent through genjutsu by having eye contact with him, so from the beginning of the match he tried to avoid eye contact with Itachi which was smart.

Unfortunately for him, Itachi was far stronger and faster than him and Yasu obviously had no training to help guide him on how to fight against a foe he couldn't make eye contact with. He put up a valiant effort but with his lack of eye contact hampering his dodging ability and offense capabilities it was a fairly one-sided and short fight.

Itachi stayed down in the ring as the proctor called Misaki down to the ring. Konoha shinobi in the stadium all tensed with anticipation for this fight. Most of the shinobi had predicted that it would be Uchiha Itachi and Yuki Misaki in the final fight of the finals, the battle of the genius prodigies.

So far both of them had expended little to no chakra and energy in each fight. A lot of people had placed bets on which one would win. Either way regardless of who won it was bound to be a very interesting fight. By all accounts they were fairly evenly matched.

As Misaki walked to the center of the ring, she stopped when she heard a loud, "YOSH! Show Itachi the power of your youth Misaki-chan! Good luck to both of you!"

Turning to where the words had emanated from, Misaki sees Gai standing in his nice guy pose with his thumb up next to a guy with really weird hair. Even from this distance she can see the shine from Gai's exuberant smile and if she was closer she bet she'd hear the ping from his smile. She nodded her head at Gai before turning back to face Itachi.

Out in the stands, Gai sat back down in his seat after shouting his encouragement.

"That was my youthful student! The power of her youth and her drive to learn taijutsu led her to seek my guidance. Under my tutelage I have trained her in the venerable art of taijutsu." Gai said with his eyes shimmering as the thought of Misaki's youthful drive warmed his heart.

"Hmm… did you say something?"

"That was very hip of you, my eternal rival!" Gai responded with tears streaming down his face.

Kakashi internally laughed at the facial expression on Gai's face before he turned back to look at the two combatants. "What do you think are the odds of your student winning against the Uchiha prodigy?"

"I have utmost faith that she will defeat him! The power of youth will prevail!" At Kakashi's raised eyebrow Gai continued in a more serious tone of voice, "I have trained her in the art of reading body language, she will be able to fight and defend against Itachi without making eye contact. I think she will win."

Kakashi mused over Gai's words for a second as he analyzed the two opponents down in the arena before he tilted his head back to face Genma and told him," Put me down for 10,000 ryo on Yuki Misaki."

"YOSH! My eternal rival, I am deeply touched by your faith in my youthful student. I, too, shall place 10,000 ryo on Yuki Misaki!"

Genma took out the little black book that had all the chunin and jonin bets written down in it and jotted down their bets. So far there was close to an even amount of bets for Misaki and Itachi. They were pretty evenly matched on all accounts.

Itachi was the prodigy of a famous clan; Misaki was also a prodigy from a clan with a kekkei genkai. According to the Konoha rumor mill, they both excelled at using their kekkei genkai. Both had graduated early although she had graduated in one year opposed to Itachi's two years. He had graduated in as the number one rookie with her right on his heels as the number two.

From watching them spar when he visited Choza-sensei, Genma knew that they were equally skilled in taijutsu. Well... at least they were he amended in his head. Who knows what kind of crazy training Gai had put her through in the last month. He was sure that Fugaku-sama had trained Itachi a lot but training with Gai was on another level and Gemna would know as he had been Gai's genin teammate. Gai was a beast when it came to training.

Down in the arena, Itachi tilted his head inquisitively at Misaki to which she responded with a slight upraised eyebrow. Itachi's eyes glinted with excitement as he gave Misaki a small mischievous smile to which Misaki gave a light shrug. They both nodded at each other and then bowed as the bewildered proctor yelled for the match to start.

Shogo laughed a little at the expression on the proctors face as he yelled for the match to start. Itachi and Misaki had this way of communicating with each other without saying a word.

Misaki could say a thousand different things with the simplest of moments. So far Shogo had counted thirteen different things communicated by the slightest variations in how she raised her eyebrow. With Itachi he was also gifted at micro expressions and his eyes were the window to his thoughts if you knew him well enough to recognize the signs.

They were both gifted at reading people's expressions and were able to communicate much with a simple glance. Shogo hadn't quite mastered communicating with only a single gesture and no words but he had grown adept at recognizing some but not all of their expressions.

From what he could see Itachi's inquisitive tilt of his head asked Misaki how they wanted to do this. Misaki's slight upraised eyebrow had said doesn't matter to me. The expression Itachi had on his face when he gave Misaki that small smile had said let's not bother with the warmup to which Misaki had shrugged why not. The nods were them both agreeing.

After the proctor yelled for both of them to start, Kakashi watched as Itachi flipped on his sharingan and immediately went on the offensive. He was fast. Kakashi would rate him at a medium level chunin's speed. His teammate was faster though maybe even equal to a strong chunin's speed; Kakashi could definitely see the signs of Gai's intensive speed training.

Even with his sharingan aiding him, Itachi was unable to land anything other than a few glancing blows. Sharingan could predict the movements but that was no use if your opponent outclassed you in speed. Misaki danced around his kicks and weaved around his punches all the while retaliating with punishing kicks and punches.

His sharingan was able to aid him in dodging most blows but a few connected. But from Itachi's flinch as when a particularly painful looking kick connected, Kakashi could tell that probably most of the hits hurt.

Itachi barely dodged an uppercut. She was exponential faster than she had been before the chunin exams. During the month of training he had improved his speed as well but not to this extent. He didn't even want to know what kind of hellish training Gai had put Misaki through.

He didn't bother trying to ensnare Misaki in a genjutsu. She had excellent chakra control and had shown in their spars that she could and would shrug off any genjutsu attempt as easily as brushing water off of her shoulder. Besides even if he had wanted to since the fight started she had yet to look into his eyes.

As the rapid paced taijutsu fight began approaching the eight minute mark, Itachi knew that he needed to put some space between them. He wouldn't be able to defeat her using taijutsu. If he continued to allow her to engage him in taijutsu, he would eventually lose the match. So as she leapt towards him, he rapidly replaced himself with one of the kunai left from Shogo's match that was behind her and threw fire coated shurikens at her back.

She used a water release gunshot to blast the shurikens away from her before throwing ice kunai at him. He dodged the kunai and threw more fire coated shuriken at her as she leapt towards him to try to dissuade her from reengaging him in taijutsu.

Misaki dodged the shurikens and threw down a smoke seal covering the entire arena in smoke. Itachi did not want to be a sitting duck for whatever Misaki had planned so he leapt up and stuck to the side of the arena. A few seconds later, Misaki's hand burst out of the smoke covering as she tried to grab Itachi's ankle.

He dodged her grab and blasted the area with fire release great fireball jutsu. As the smoke cleared from the force of his blast, Itachi wasn't surprised to a flat plane of ice on the ground and know she had escaped unscathed. In the short time that smoke had covered the arena, Misaki had created ice mirrors in various places all along the arena.

Itachi mentally cringed. He didn't use his sharingan to cast genjutsu on Misaki in spars and she generally didn't use this technique in spars against him. In the only other C-mission that they had run into trouble, he had seen her use this to defeat a strong chunin on her own.

Though he had been more powerful than her, he had not been able to keep up with her speed or catch her when before she slipped into one of her ice mirrors. With her long-lasting physical stamina from training with Gai and her immense chakra pools she had played a deadly game of attrition and won.

There wasn't a huge difference between Itachi's and Misaki's physical stamina but she still had more. She definitely had him beat in regards to chakra reserves though. The longer the fight went on the less chance he had of winning.

Misaki inwardly gulped as she narrowly dodged another fire coated shuriken. Itachi had used one of his projectiles to deflect another mid-air and it missed her shoulder by a hair. Upon noticing the five ice mirrors spread across the field Itachi's body had stiffened with the realization in that she planned on using the mirrors to attack from and to escape his counterattacks.

After the split second of stiffness, he had launched an all-out brutal assault against her. He used that to keep her away from any of her ice mirrors. With the ferocity he was attacking with she couldn't stay still for the second it took to form another ice panel big enough to enter. Between the endless amount fire coated shurikens, he also threw various fire jutsu here and there which she countered with different water jutsu.

She evaporated his most recent fireball with another water release gunshot before getting inside his guard and using wind release cutting whirlwind jutsu. Itachi replaced himself with a discarded shuriken to avoid the wind jutsu. She was dodging the multiple fireballs from his phoenix flame jutsu he shot at her after replacing himself when he managed to get eye contact with her.

Misaki didn't even have the time to inwardly curse before his genjutsu hit. She dispelled it instantly but was unable to avoid one of Itachi's thrown kunai. It grazed her forearm just as she managed avoid the others by substituting with a shuriken lying on the muddy ground. All the fire jutsus Itachi had thrown and water jutsus she had thrown almost turned the arena into a scorched and muddy terrain.

Itachi continued his barrage of shurikens. With him using other shuriken to reflect and change his projectiles' path midair Misaki had to use her sight to avoid them. But as she glanced around her to avoid them, she also had to avoid Itachi making eye contact with her. So far he had managed to catch her in genjutsus three times. While she could recognize and dispel genjutsu fast, all either of them needed to end the fight was a second where the other was preoccupied.

Misaki pulled her secret weapon and unsealed it. Out of the storage scroll gushed 2,500 gallons of water. The instant the water gushed out, Misaki used hiding in the mist jutsu. By casting the mist jutsu, Itachi was forced to cancel the lightning release lightning bolt jutsu he had begun to do as soon as he had seen the water gush out of the storage scroll. If he hadn't, he ran the risk of being electrocuted.

Shrouding the arena in moderate mist, Misaki had obstructed Itachi's vision enough to essentially preventing him from using his sharingan to genjutsu her. Since the mist was moderate not heavy, she was able to vaguely see Itachi and vice versa but he wouldn't be able to cast a genjutsu even if he did catch her eyes. She only had a few precious seconds before Itachi blew away the mist with a strong wind jutsu but that was all Misaki needed.

When she used her jutsu, Itachi knew he needed to blow away the mist or risk being entrapped by Misaki's ice. The entire area and air surrounding them in the arena was now a weapon at her disposal. He immediately attempted to bring his hands together to cast a wind jutsu only to find that it was too late and she had already covered his hands and feet in ice.

Misaki changed the mist back into water lining the stadium floor with water. At seeing Itachi's ice covered hands and feet, the proctor named Misaki as the winner. As the stadium broke out into a thunderous applause, Misaki released Itachi from his icy shackles. They did the seal of conciliation and shook hands.

"Good job, it was an excellent fight. I didn't realize that you had gotten that far along with your seals." Itachi said as they walked off the arena.

"Thanks, you too. I kept it as a surprise in case I happened to face you or Shogo. We definitely impressed the judges without showing our fully capabilities. What do you think?" Misaki asked.

"Judging from the deafening applause and pleased expressions on everyone's faces, I'd say so. I want to have an actual full on fight where we use everything at our disposal. I'm curious to see what the results would be." Itachi replied just as Shogo reached them and gave them both high fives.

"Damn guys, that was an awesome fight. Like really awesome. Half the time everyone was on the edge of their seats. There were a lot of times where it looked like the fight could go either way. Congratulations on your win Misaki! Even though you didn't win Itachi, I'm pretty sure you're going to be promoted. I was sitting next to Choza-sensei during your guys' match and he mentioned that you both were probably going to be promoted." Shogo said as he laid his arms around each of their shoulders while they walked towards where Choza-sensei was standing.

"Good job team. I'm also proud to be all of your guys' sensei. I'm also glad you took my advice about revealing enough to impress but not show everything." Choza said before they all left to join their respective family members.

A week later, they got the results of the chunin exam. Out of the Konoha finalists Itachi, Misaki, and Taka were promoted to chunin. Shogo was bummed that he hadn't been promoted but he had pretty much figured that would happen as his overconfidence had caused him to lose the match to a slightly weaker opponent. He wasn't too bummed though as he already had plans to take the next chunin exams with Daiki and Natsumi.

Choza-sensei had been so ecstatic about all of them making it to the finals and two of them being promoted to chunin that he threw a huge celebration party at his house with a bunch of different delicious dishes and desserts.

Things couldn't be better. Nothing made Misaki happier than celebrating hers and Itachi's promotions with good food and desserts surrounded by her precious people. She had passed the chunin exams and her book was set to release in a few months. She and Haku were both happy and once her book released hopefully it would be a success so she no longer had to worry about Haku's well-being if something ever happened to her.

As she looked around at all the people who had become so precious to her, for the first time she knew with one hundred percent certainty that she had made the right choice in bringing Haku and herself to Konoha.


	12. Infiltration and Realizations

A/N:

To animefreak2221396, thanks for the awesome comments. I'm glad that you love my story :)

To sweetandsimple1, thanks for the reviews and no need to apologize. I'm just glad that readers like you enjoy the story enough to leave a review or multiple reviews :D that sucks that your internet went down. After reading your previous review about the lack of Haku's pov I decided to write one into ch9. Haku doesn't know that Misaki is publishing the story yet and we will see some of Naruto soon. I haven't had much of Sasuke in the story even though Itachi is because it seemed like Itachi was always really busy and unable to spend as much time with Sasuke as he wanted. I felt like Misaki probably wouldn't know him more than as a passing acquaintance for now especially when he's so young.

To lilnudger82, thanks for the review! Happy to hear that you liked the battle between Misaki and Itachi and that you enjoy reading my story :)

To AngelVow, thanks for the bravo, comment, and the suggestion. I added NarutoxHP crossover to the story summary and I'm planning on putting it under the crossover fandom section once in a while when I update it a new chapter.

To Shae Vizla, thanks for another awesome review. I've slowly been weaving in a few tales of Misaki's past here and there to give some background on how she changed from the Draco at the end of the 7th book to the person she is in my story. In the final match between Misaki and Itachi, they hid a lot of their abilities for example like the abilities you mentioned in your review. They only needed to show enough to impress future clients and pass the exams. About five months prior to the exam, Choza ranked them at about a weak chunin's strength from what he had seen of his genin. A lot can change in five months of training plus an additional month of intensive training. I actually had Gai as part of the team that escorted her to Konoha because I planned on him training her eventually. He's one of the few people that are used to fighting against a sharingan user so I felt he would make an excellent teacher for Misaki.

To Shadow of God, thanks for another review! I actually had planned on having Taka face Misaki and Itachi face the victor. However, I decided to give him a more graceful defeat then having Misaki freeze the shit out of his bugs. She had already curb-stomped two of her opponents so I wanted to add some variety. Haha that would be evil if I killed her off in the next chapter but yes Haku would be taken care of if that did happen. In the canon it states that Itachi gets promoted to chunin at 10 and joined ANBU at 11 in the canon. So I don't feel like I've made him weaker because his canon counterpart went from chunin to anbu in a year. If you think about it in three years, Sasuke who by all accounts is vastly less skilled than Itachi was able to go from being a strong genin to what he was after the time skip. So far he has shown to his sensei and in the chunin exams that he has mid chunin level skills but just because that was all that they've been shown doesn't mean that's the full extent of his abilities. He isn't a show off and hasn't had a need or opportunity to use anything further than that. For example five months prior to the exams, Choza rated his genjutsu skills at mid chunin to high chunin levels. Five months of additional training plus the complex genjutsus that his father taught him in preparation for the finals has upped that skill a lot. He just didn't have the chance to utilize genjutsu much against Misaki as she avoided eye contact and excels at dispelling genjutsu due to her excellent control. The way their fight went down in the finals is going to make him realize a few of things. As for whether he needs to join ANBU or not in this universe, the answers will become clear in the coming chapters. So I don't want to give too much away.

To deathgeonous, thanks for the review I'm glad you find my fic good :)

To silk, thanks! sorry I didn't see your review. It went under the review moderation section. I'm glad to hear that you've loved my story so far :) I've decided to start posting it under the crossover section every few chapters or so.

To the guest that reviewed thanks!

* * *

 **Chapter 12: Infiltration and Realizations**

A month after Choza-sensei's celebration for his and Misaki's promotion, Itachi pulled out his chunin flak jacket from his closet as he thought about his and Misaki's match during the finals. When they had agreed not to showcase their full skill during their match, he had been the one to suggest that they only use non chakra assisted speed as it would give any future opponents a misrepresentation of their true speed.

Prior to the month of preparation for the finals, Misaki had been faster than him but in spars his sharingan's predictive abilities negated the advantage her speed gave her. However the intensive training she had done during the month increased her base speed to the point it negated the advantage from his sharingan. Other than Shisui, that match had been the first time he fought against a non-sharigan wielding opponent that was fast enough to negate that advantage.

With his chakra enhanced speed, he rarely ran into opponents that were able to beat his dojutsu's predictive abilities purely through speed. After seeing how much Gai-san's training augmented Misaki's speed, he had asked Gai-san if he could join them for their physical exercises to which Gai had tearfully proclaimed that he would be happy to assist in fanning the flames of his youth.

Generally it was just him and Misaki doing the exercises together as Gai only joined them for the exercises twice a week. The sheer amount of physical exercises he assigned them to do was astounding but Itachi couldn't argue with the results. In just a month he had already increased his speed by a bit.

Aside from realizing that he needed to increase his speed, Itachi also realized for the first time how easily eye contact could be avoided if a person was trained to do so. He had never faced an opponent that was able to attack and defend without ever having eye contact with their adversary. His prowess in genjutsu was useless if he couldn't initiate eye contact with someone.

Most genjutsus required the caster to make eye contact with the target. The match highlighted the fact that he had to discern a way to cast most genjutsu without needing eye contact. He hadn't made as much headway with this as he had with increasing his speed but as no one has been able to cast most genjutsu without needing eye contact before it was uncharted territory.

Itachi finished getting ready to leave, gave his mother a kiss on the cheek, and poked Sasuke lightly in the forehead before heading out the door. Today was his and Misaki's first ever b-rank mission. For the past month, they had continued running missions with Choza-sensei and Shogo. The only difference was they no longer did any D-rank missions and did C-rank missions.

He and Misaki were assigned to a squad with Yamanaka Santa and Genma for a B-ranked protection mission. Their client, Hirosuke Tatsuya, was a wealthy landowner in the northern part of Fire country. His estate's steward had died after drinking poisoned wine sent to his house as a gift. He suspected that he had been the target of the poisoned wine so he had sent a protection request to Konoha. Their mission was to protect the client and find out who was trying to end his life.

As they were making their way to their client's estate, Misaki felt slightly nervous. Even though they had a jonin and a tokubetsu jonin with them, this was the first mission they had ever gone on without Choza-sensei and Shogo. It would also be her first time going undercover.

Luckily she wouldn't be going undercover alone. Santa would also be going undercover. Their team leader, Yamanaka Santa, was an experienced jonin who specialized in intelligence gathering, espionage, and interrogation.

Itachi and Genma would be trying to ferret out the assassin or whoever hired them while protecting Tatsuya while Misaki and Santa infiltrated the household and looked out for anyone suspicious. Misaki would also be on protection detail as she most likely would be spending the most time with her client due to her cover.

Normally, they wouldn't assign an infiltration b-rank mission to two new chunins but they both had shown great skill during the exams. Also Misaki's age and physical characteristics would give them an opening in the household that wouldn't rouse the suspicion of the possible assassin.

She would be posing as Tatsuya's long lost granddaughter to serve as bait for the possible assassin. His child, their spouse, and only granddaughter had gone missing 8 years ago during a vacation. The bodies of his heir and their spouse turned up but his granddaughter's infant body had never appeared.

Only Tatsuya would know her identity. Not even the current sole heir to his fortune, his nephew, would be told. Their jonin team leader, Santa, would be posing as the man who had discovered the baby along the road and raised her. Itachi and Genma were posing as Konoha shinobi hired to escort Misaki and Santa to Tatsuya's estate and protect Tatsuya from assassins.

Misaki had learned about infiltration during her kunoichi classes but she had never pretended to be someone she was not before. While she had been skilled at manipulating, lying, and pretending in her past life she still felt inadequately prepared for this mission. As they travelled towards Tatsuya's estate, she was grateful that Santa gave her a crash course in infiltration.

Luckily for Misaki, according to him most people looked at a ten year old and thought kid not possible ninja or threat. Santa told her with her fragile looking appearance and doll-like looks as long as she remembered to move like she had never had training that she would fly under people's radars.

Only other highly skilled ninja would be able to catch her. Santa assured Misaki that he would be there to catch them before they even got near to her. He also had given her a one way transmitter for emergency purposes.

About a four hour walk from their client's estate, Santa had them slow down to civilian speed and coached Misaki on how to hide indicators of her training and helped her craft her cover story. It was hard at first to change the way she walked and moved but by the time they were an hour away from Tatsuya's estate Santa had deemed her good enough to pass scrutiny.

It was astounding to watch Santa change from their jonin team leader and slip into the role of a merchant. He changed his gait, the way he held himself, and even the aura he exuded. His angular face softened slightly and his eyes became softer. He changed the intonation of his words and even the accent he spoke with.

In the span of less than a minute he ceased to be Yamanaka Santa and became Shimada Ryota, a general goods store owner. He had shed everything that had made him Santa and replaced it with his cover. It was like looking at a completely different person. Sure they shared the same hair color and physical attributes but that was it. If she hadn't known that he was a highly trained jonin, she would never suspect him of being one. She had always thought of her godfather, Severus, as an extremely skilled spy but watching Santa literally transform into another person just by modifying his behavior opened her eyes. This was the skill of a true infiltration specialist.

As they walked closer and closer to the estate, Misaki could feel various people alongside the road staring at her and whispering. Curious, she wanted to use chakra to enhance her hearing so she could hear what they were saying but Santa had forbidden her from using any chakra, shinobi abilities, or skills for the duration of the mission unless her life was in imminent danger. The slightest slip up or use of shinobi skills on her part could alert any possible hostiles. Though all the signs pointed to the assassin being a civilian, that didn't mean they hadn't hired shinobi after failing their initial assassination attempt.

Their client Tatsuya greeted Santa with a warm smile before turning to Misaki. With teary eyes he embraced her with a soft hug as he said he had waited for far too long to be reunited with her.

The instant Misaki had seen their client she realized why she had been chosen for this mission. The resemblance was uncanny. Tatsuya had straight black hair that was streaked with grey and sky blue eyes. He even had a slightly pointed chin like she did. If Misaki didn't know the truth she would think they actually were related.

She and Santa had established that her cover should be a shy well-mannered girl for a few reasons. The less she spoke, the less likely she was to trip up. Also people tended to say more in front of kids that are seen but not heard. So she kept her head slightly tilted downwards and forced a blush onto her face as she softly said, "Hai, Ojii-sama. I'm so happy to be reunited with you as well. I never expected to be able to meet an actual relative of mine."

At her soft words, an elderly woman to the right cooed, "My goodness, aren't you such a sweetheart! Tatsuya-sama may I show Erika-sama to her room?" At his nod, she led Misaki into the house as she told her how much she looked like her mother Aika-sama and how much she would come to love this place.

After the fifth time of being cooed at by a member of Tatsuya's household staff on the way to her room, Misaki realized that Santa was right. They all looked at her child-like countenance and immediately saw an adorable kid to coddle. None of these people would suspect her of being a ninja unless she gave them a reason to suspect.

The elderly woman, who had asked her to call her Ayano-oba, had laid out clothes for her and left her in her room so she could bathe after telling her if she needed anything she only needed to ring the bell on her nightstand or ask any of the staff members. Looking around at her room for the duration of the mission, it reminded her of her room back in Malfoy manor.

While obviously it had a more eastern influence than her old room, it was as luxurious as her old room had been. The furniture was well-made and had delicate flowers carved into the dark mahogany wood. Misaki had laid her hand on the bed and her hand sunk into the plushness of the mattress. There were large windows illuminating her room with warm afternoon sunlight as the windows overlooked the mansion's various gardens and a large koi pond. The entire room was swathed in pastel pinks, whites, and light gold. It was a beautiful room fit for a princess.

As she slipped into the elegantly decorated bathroom connected to her room to shower and get ready for dinner, she thought about her role in this mission. Santa had told her that it was integral that no one suspected she was not who she said she was.

He would be doing the majority of investigating though she was supposed to keep her eyes peeled for anything suspicious. If she saw anything suspicious she was supposed to report it to one of her teammates.

Ayano-oba had returned after Misaki finished showering to help her into the elegant kimono she was supposed to wear to dinner. It was a beautiful pale blue silk kimono with an intricate white and navy blue pattern and a silver obi. Ayano-oba put Misaki's hair up and secured it with a silk flower hair ornament before leading her to the dining room.

At the soft click of zori across the wooden floors, Itachi looked to the door from where he stood in the dining room and was transfixed. He had never seen his teammate in anything other than training outfits or casual clothes.

Seeing her in the intricate and beautiful kimono brought to mind how on the day she met his parents he had mused that if he didn't know better he would've thought that she had been born and raised in a noble clan. That day she had acted the part, today she definitely looked the part. Judging from the teary eyes of their client, it also struck a chord in him.

Tatsuya blinked a few times as he pushed down his tears. "Sorry, that kimono was your mother's favorite when she was your age. For a second looking at you was almost like seeing her as a child again. Erika-chan come here and meet your second cousin, Shintaro."

Misaki walked over to meet Shintaro feeling very off balanced by Tatsuya's comments. She had assumed that his child was a son as he had referred to him as his heir in the mission information. But now the quality of everything in the beautiful room she was staying in made sense. She knew that she was acting the part of his granddaughter but he knew the truth. Why would her client dress her in something as precious as his daughter's favorite kimono?

Dinner was delicious but Misaki was unable to relax and enjoy it fully. She had never worn a kimono before. While pretty it was very difficult to move around in. She was also nervous about spilling anything on the long trailing sleeves of the kimono. Misaki didn't want to wreck her client's dead daughter's favorite kimono.

Tatsuya seemed like a kindly old man and Shintaro had been nothing but kind to her during dinner. But it was obvious to the shinobi in the room that Shintaro definitely had not been pleased by the reappearance of Tatsuya's granddaughter. Whether it was because he didn't want to share his inheritance or other nefarious purposes they didn't know.

The next morning Misaki made her way to Tatsuya's study. As she was posing as his granddaughter and would be able to be in close proximity to him without scaring away potential assassins, she had been assigned to protect him.

"I know you were probably taken aback by my comments yesterday at dinner. Come with me I'd like to show you something." Tatsuya said once she had arrived in his study.

Following him, he led her to a long empty corridor with painted portraits hanging on the walls before stopping in front of the portrait of a young woman. "This is my beloved Aika-chan. When you arrived here, I was startled by your resemblance to her. I knew Konoha was sending a kunoichi the same age as my granddaughter would've been but I didn't expect you to look so much like my beloved daughter. After seeing your resemblance to her, it was almost like providence was allowing me to see what my granddaughter would have looked like. I couldn't stop myself from having Ayano lay out my daughter's favorite kimono from when she was your age."

Misaki could understand how he felt. Staring at that portrait was almost like staring at a future mirror. Aika's face was ovular where Misaki's was heart-shaped and her eyes were narrower than Misaki's round eyes but the resemblance was startling. It was almost like looking at a painting of Tonomi with blue eyes.

"I can understand. I lost my mother a few years ago. She greatly resembled your daughter except she had brown eyes. Even though I know that painting isn't her, I could stay here for hours just looking at it."

Over the next few days the more Misaki learned about their client the more she liked him. He was a kindly old man who treated his employees with respect. He leased out his land surrounding his mansion to farmers in return for very reasonable rent prices. If they couldn't pay him in money he accepted other things instead of payment like produce or help repairing things.

So far she hadn't found anyone in the household that had a reason to even dislike him and there hadn't been any other assassination attempts. Santa was looking into possible leads but so far it seemed like the actual target had been Tatsuya's steward.

He had found out days before Issei, his steward, had been poisoned that Issei had narrowly dodged being crushed by an object that had fallen from one of the mansion's second story window. The wine that had been poisoned was also a brand that Tatsuya didn't like and Issei favored.

But Santa had been unable to find any reason that anyone would want to kill Issei. He was reported to be a kind and smart businessman whose parents were tenants on Tatsuya's land. He had nothing unsavory in his past and got along with everyone. Tatsuya had paid for his business school and once he had graduated Issei had returned to assist Tatsuya with running his estate.

Santa had analyzed the poison and found it was a common black market poison that anyone would be able to obtain for the right price. That and the window incident pointed at the assassin as being a civilian not a shinobi.

Five days into the mission Misaki was sitting in Tatsuya's study while he worked when Shintaro entered and closed the door. Hearing him lock the door behind him, Misaki instantly was on her guard.

"Tatsuya-oji surely the shinobis have found out by now that Issei was the target. He probably ripped someone off in a business deal and they took him out."

"Shintaro-kun, how could you say that about him? Issei was like family. He was a good honest man. He would never rip someone off." Tatsuya said as he stood up from his desk upset.

"Issei, Issei, Issei. That's all you think about. That's all I hear about. How Issei is so smart for graduating from business school or how Issei has his life on track. What about me? I'm your blood relative. He's nothing but a poor farmer's son. When are the shinobi going to leave?" Shintaro sneered out.

After hearing his comments, Misaki discreetly pressed on the one way transmitter that Santa gave her for emergency purposes. The transmitter would allow her teammates to hear what she was hearing even though they wouldn't be able to respond to her. Most normal people would want the perpetrator caught before the shinobi left. The fact that Shintaro didn't was sending major red flags.

"You should be ashamed of yourself for saying this stuff in front of Erika-chan. You were raised better than this. There is enough room in my heart for both you and Issei. The only reason I would mention things like that to you is because I want you to get your life on track. Gambling every day and drinking every night, is that really what you want to do for the rest of your life? The shinobi aren't going to leave until they find the perpetrator and apprehend whoever it is. It is the least we can do for his grieving parents. This discussion is closed."

"I was afraid that would be your response. What happens next is on you." Shintaro said as a Kusa nin slid in through the window. "I never wanted to hurt you old man. I just wanted Issei out of the way. With the way you were training him and teaching him the business I couldn't allow him to take my spot. But now that Erika-chan has been found, I know I'm not going to get anything from you so the both of you have to die. Don't bother hoping that your shinobi guard will help you. I made sure to hire enough ninja to keep them occupied."

"Keep who occupied?" Genma asked as he quickly tossed the kusa missing nin out the window to where Itachi was waiting.

Seeing Genma covered in blood, Shintaro blanched and started backing towards the door.

"I wouldn't try that if I were you. Do you really think that you can outrun a shinobi?" Genma said as he languidly adjusted the senbon in his mouth as he watched Shintaro.

Despite Genma's warning Shintaro grabbed for the door handle only to scream in pain as Genma shot the senbon from his mouth nailing Shintaro's hand to the oak wooden door.

"Man, why do they always try that… Now I'm going to have to use a different senbon."

Genma then crossed the room to rip the senbon from Shintaro's hand eliciting a shriek of pain from him and tied him up using ninja wire. As Genma was tying Shintaro up, there was a poof as a book that had been sitting on the table next to Tatsuya transformed into Santa.

"Mission completed Tatsuya-sama. Yesterday, I sensed a Kusa missing ninja lurking around the borders of your estate. I followed him back to his fellow missing ninja where I found that they had been paid by someone in your household to kill yourself and Erika-chan. They didn't mention the person by name so we set traps and waited for the perpetrator to bite. Do you wish to say anything to Shintaro before we take him away?"

With a pale face, Tatsuya shook his head. He had nothing to say to his nephew after hearing that he had murdered Issei and had been planning on murdering him and the kunoichi posing as Erika-chan. He knew that it wasn't really Erika-chan but as far as Shintaro had known it was his long lost cousin. For the sake of a bigger inheritance he had been willing to murder a little girl and his own uncle.

Within thirty minutes they were all packed and about to leave when Tatsuya asked them to wait. His butler came out carrying a lacquered wooden chest and Tatsuya asked to speak to Misaki privately.

"I want you to have these kimonos. Despite the horrible circumstances, your presence has brought me joy. Seeing you smile and walk around the halls of my home these past few days reminded me of a happier time when my precious Aika-chan was alive. I greatly enjoyed talking to you and imagine that you're what her daughter Erika might have been like if she had survived."

"Thank you but I couldn't possibly accept them. Even one of those is worth a fortune." Misaki protested.

"I insist. Please humor this old man. I have chests upon chests full of them. Aika-chan enjoyed dressing up in kimonos and I had saved them intending for her daughter to be able to enjoy them once she was old enough. They have sat collecting dust for far too long now. My Aika-chan would've wanted someone to make use of them rather than them sitting in storage."

Seeing that Tatsuya was not going to relent until she accepted them, Misaki gave a deep bow. "I'm deeply honored by your gift. Please take good care of yourself."

After Misaki sealed the chest into a storage scroll, they made their way back to Konoha. On the way back, Genma carefully observed his two newly promoted chunin teammates. After watching them fight in the finals, he had known they were talented but he hadn't realized how little of Itachi's true strength they had seen during the match. He wondered if Misaki also had hidden just as much of her true strength. She had been touted as the Uchiha prodigy's possible equal. As they leapt through the countryside, Genma thought about the events that happened earlier today.

Earlier today, Santa had stayed behind inside of Tatsuya's study waiting for the perpetrator to appear and incase Misaki needed backup. So it was just him and Itachi patrolling the perimeter. When the three kusa missing ninjas had tried to jump them as they were patrolling, they had jeered that even if they managed to escape them the girl and Tatsuya would already be dead.

Even though Misaki was a capable kunoichi and that Santa was there as well, people could be caught off guard and killed. Itachi's eyes had hardened at the taunt and he began attacking viciously.

Genma had expected that Itachi would need his help to finish his opponent as the speed that he had lunged at Itachi with seemed to be that of a very fast chunin. However as he was fighting his two opponents, he could see that Itachi clearly was faster speed wise than his speedy opponent. Genma had not been expecting Itachi to be able to match him in speed given what Genma had seen in the finals.

A few minutes into the fight his opponent made the mistake of underestimating Itachi due to his young age. It was a mistake that cost him his life. Itachi dodged his opponent's attack with ease and struck back with deadly precision. With very fast hand seals he threw out a wind release blade of wind that decapitated his opponent.

He managed to take out his opponent before Genma was even able to take out either of his opponents and Genma had been a ninja for longer than this kid had been alive.

As they fought alongside each other to take down the two remaining opponents it was almost a bit intimidating to see how skilled Itachi was. Genma knew for a fact that the older missing ninja they were fighting was jonin level and his younger partner was a very strong chunin but they were no match for him and Itachi.

He was fast, a lot faster than he had displayed in the exams. He knew that Itachi had begun speed training with Gai but a month didn't make that huge of a difference. He had attacked the younger partner and immediately moved to the location that the missing nin retreated to delivering a hard kick before the missing nin could counter-attack.

While he was kicking the younger missing nin, he had simultaneously shot a fire release great fireball jutsu at Genma's opponent before shunshining next to where the younger missing nin landed from his kick and trapping him in a genjutsu.

His opponent was unable to dispel Itachi's genjutsu before Itachi slit his throat and focused on helping Genma with his opponent. With Itachi's help, they made quick work of the older missing nin before racing back to Tatsuya's mansion.

Before they had left for this mission, Genma had voiced concerns about them not being ready for a B-rank mission to Gai. To which Gai had replied that they were both more than ready and that Genma should have more faith in his youthful soon to be teammates.

Though all signs had pointed to the assassin being a civilian, their client was rich. Where there was money, there always was trouble. Genma had trusted Gai's judgement but he still had been worried if they ran into any jonin level assassins. His teammates while strong were still only strong chunin and even though Santa was a jonin, he was more of an infiltrator and interrogator than a combat oriented ninja.

But after watching Itachi fight at his true capacity and if Misaki had been similarly holding back as much during the Chunin finals, Genma could see why Gai had told him that not to worry. Hell, he didn't even know if what he witnessed was even Itachi's true strength and he had taken that those two missing ninjas down quite easily.

By the time they returned to Konoha, it was too early in the morning for Misaki to pick Haku up from Tsume's house. In a way it was a good thing. Shintaro attempting to assassinate his own family member had brought up bitter memories of Yoshirou's betrayal to the surface. While Yoshirou hadn't tried to kill them because of money as Shintaro had to Tatsuya, he had still betrayed his family for a bullshit reason.

So instead of heading home, she picked up some onigiri and tea before heading towards the Naka river. Misaki jumped her way up the tall redwood by the Naka River and was surprised to see Itachi there. She would've thought he would have gone home after the mission. Generally after long missions like this one, Itachi went straight home.

She didn't expect to see him in their spot. After they graduated from the Academy, they could no longer hangout at their tree in the academy yard. One day after training Itachi had brought Misaki here and shown her this particular spot. Sitting on the highest branches, a person could see all of Konoha. From that day forward, this tree had become one of their favorite places to sit and talk.

"The mission bothered you too, huh. Seeing Shintaro-san betray Tatsuya-san really bothered me. Family shouldn't betray family like that." Misaki stated as she tossed Itachi one of the onigiri she had picked up from a twenty four hour convenience store. They sat in silence eating the onigiri as they watched the sun begin to peek over the horizon.

"So you believe that people should never betray family?" Itachi queried as he pulled out a box of pocky and offered her some.

"I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that doing it over something like money is sickening."

"What if the person's family or a person in that family is doing something wrong? Do you think that a person should stand by and say nothing because they are family?"

Misaki glanced at Itachi from the corner of her eyes taking note of his unusually intense expression as she crunched on a stick of pocky and analyzed his expression. She and Itachi routinely had philosophical conversations similar to this but normally they were relaxed as they talked. He seemed relaxed outwardly but Misaki knew him well enough to tell that he was stewing over something from the expression in his eyes.

She noticed that in the recent months he had seemed more stressed than usual and been becoming more and more taciturn. She had asked him repeatedly what was wrong only for him to noncommittally tell her everything was fine before changing the subject. Did this have to do with what had been bothering him?

"Define what you mean by wrong. Is it something that will greatly harm other people?"

"And if it is?" Itachi asked as he looked gazed off into the distance.

"Then no, a person shouldn't stand idly by even if it is their family. They should do something or say something to someone with the power to do something." Misaki responded.

A few minutes passed before Itachi said, "Once words are spoken, they can never be taken back. What if saying something does more harm than good? Saying something doesn't mean anything will be resolved. What if whoever that person says something to, doesn't believe them."

Misaki puzzled over Itachi's statement. Their conversation was definitely not just a random philosophical discussion. But what could one of his family members be doing that was so bad that Itachi was reluctant to tell his father? Why would Itachi think that Fugaku would doubt his word? From what she had seen of Fugaku, he adored the very ground Itachi walked on.

"That's true once words have been spoken there is no taking them back. But remaining silent is worse. Even if saying something doesn't resolve anything at least if a person said something then they tried. That person should tell the whole truth and situation if they want the best chance of everything being resolved. If the person listening to the other person is a ninja wouldn't they be able to discern truth from lies? Besides if that person chooses to confide in the other person, wouldn't it be someone that they trust? They would have to rely on the fact that the person reciprocates that trust especially if the person they confide in is a non-ninja and unable to discern the truth themselves."

Itachi hned in response as they sat in silence watching the sun rise over Konoha. After watching the sun rise for another thirty minutes, Misaki turned towards Itachi and waited until he faced her. "Are you sure everything is okay with you? I hope you know that you can talk to me about anything. No judgement here."

"Aa, thanks. I'm fine." Itachi replied before turning once more to look at the sunrise.

Misaki sat there with Itachi as they silently watched the sun finish rising until it was a reasonable enough time to go pick up Haku from Tsume's house. Even after Misaki left, Itachi continued to sit there gazing off into the distance.

As Misaki and Haku sat down at one of their favorite cafes and ordered breakfast, the conversation Misaki had with Itachi was still bothering her. She was tempted to hunt down Shisui and ask him to look out for Itachi but she knew her teammate would be irritated if she stuck her nose in his business after he said he was fine. If he needed her help, he would ask. But she couldn't help but be worried. She couldn't even fathom what could be so bad that Itachi was afraid his father wouldn't believe him.

"Nee-chan, everything okay? You seem distracted. How was your mission?" Haku asked after his nee-chan didn't respond to the earlier question he asked. He had asked her if they would be able to train later today and instead of responding she had continued to stare blankly at the wall.

"Yeah, I'm fine just tired. I arrived home from my mission early this morning. The mission went well." Misaki said as she pasted on a smile. "After I walk you to class, I'm going to go home and crash. By the way Haku-kun, I've been meaning to tell you but it slipped my mind. I brought my stories to a publisher and they agreed to publish my novel."

"Misaki-nee, that's great! I bet your novel is going to do really well. I always thought that if you didn't like being a kunoichi that you would make an awesome writer."

Misaki smiled at Haku's vote of confidence before she reached across the table and ruffled his hair. "Thanks otouto, we better leave now or else you'll be late for school."

After paying for their breakfast Misaki walked him to school. As they passed the various shops starting to open in the marketplace, Haku felt happy that Misaki was his older sister. A lot of kids in their class complained about their older siblings and some of the things they said seemed unbelievable to him. He couldn't imagine Misaki-nee ever acting the way some of his classmates said their older siblings acted.

Some of his classmates even complained about how they wanted to be an only child. Haku couldn't imagine his life without Misaki-nee. He wouldn't trade his older sister for anything in the world. He knew that in her heart he was the dearest person to her and she was the most precious person to him as well.

He loved how she always tried to spend as much time with him as possible. Like today how she made the effort to eat breakfast with him and walk him to school even though she must be really tired from her mission.

As Misaki and Haku chatted and leisurely walked to his civilian school, across town Itachi rose from his deep bow. He looked into the stern but kind eyes of the man sitting across from him, a man who he had idolized and looked up to since he had been a child. As he gathered his composure, he hoped that this man would believe what he was about to say.

"Hokage-sama, I have something I need to inform you."

An hour and a half later, Hiruzen felt old after the conversation he had just had with the heir to the Uchiha clan. He felt old every day since he had been forced out of his retirement but today he felt especially old and weary.

Hiruzen pinched the bridge of his nose and wondered why bad things always seemed to come in threes. The Hyuuga clan was still reeling from the attempted kidnapping of its heiress and the subsequent consequences of the events that had occurred that night. He had just gotten word that Naruto had gotten kicked out of his orphanage and now this.

As he lit his pipe and took a relaxing puff he thought to himself that he was getting way too old for this shit. Don't get him wrong he loved his village, had spent his entire lifetime to serving his village, and would give his life in a heartbeat to save his village but he wanted to spend the remainder of his years on this earth peacefully with what little family he had left. Not dealing with endless conflict and politics. He didn't want the Hokage position anymore but there was no one else to do it.

One of the possible candidates was boozing and gambling her way through the elemental nations with no plans of ever returning to Konoha, one of the others was too busy with important research, and the third was far too young and drowning in depression sinking further and further into the harsh depths of ANBU. There was one person who desperately wanted the job, but that man would only become Hokage over his lifeless corpse.

The hat that had once been a symbol of great pride and happiness for him had become a shackle chaining him to job that he had retired from and not wanted to come back to. After his dear wife's death during the horrible events of five years ago, all he had wanted to do was mourn the loss of his soulmate.

But with Minato's death, he had been forced out of retirement for the village and also for little Naruto's sake. He couldn't stand idly by and allow the vengeful citizens to wrongfully take out their anger on an innocent little baby. Despite Minato's wishes for him to be seen as a hero, the first council meeting after the Kyuubi attack people had been baying for little Naruto's blood.

Now he had to deal with this. He was glad that Itachi trusted him enough to tell him everything and some of the things Itachi had told him were truly alarming. He had to figure out a solution but even thinking about how to deal with the issue was giving him a splitting migraine. Hiruzen knew things were bad but he hadn't realized that things had gotten that bad. After listening to everything Itachi said, he knew that one man was responsible. The question was how to best to deal with said man.


	13. Unexpected Meeting

A/N: there is a small scene that is from actual harry potter so this is a disclaimer. Some of you may recognize it when it is mentioned. Also I realized I forgot to put in the scene regarding Draco's actual death so I edited chapter 13 and added it in.

To lady kira 8, thanks for another review. (for some reason it doesn't allow me to type out your name as is) So far Misaki's presence has had a slight effect on the events already. In canon, Itachi doesn't inform the Hokage of the possible coup d'etat until he's eleven and in ANBU. Sorry if my scene changes are confusing sometimes, I've been trying to use transitional phrases and such to help ease scene changes and flashbacks. I totally forgot you could put a line divider in. I shall endeavor to use them where they're needed.

To deathgeonus, thanks for the review and thanks :P

To Miyukino, I'm glad you like my story.

To Shadow of God, thanks. I went back and read what I had written. I had meant to put most genjutsu not make it seem like Itachi meant all genjutsu so I went back and edited it. I meant that all the genjutsu that Itachi knows so far utilizes eye contact. Like you said not all genjutsu needs eye contact. In the canon if people avoided eye contact with him, Itachi was proficient with casting genjutsu in general by just pointing at someone so I was having the chunin finals match kind of push him in the direction of discovering that. Misaki pushed him to go to the Hokage earlier than he would have in canon. In my story Itachi had already been stressing about it for months and the conversation was the tipping point. In the canon he goes tells the hokage when he was already in anbu at the age of 11. So this gives them an extra year of time. Yeah some of the rankings in the canon don't make sense to me either. I never understood why some jonin seemed weak compared to some tokubetsu jonin. In Anko's case maybe she was denied promotion to full jonin because of her past affiliation with Orochimaru and the fact that she couldn't remember what happened when they parted? I don't know.

To Astronamar, thanks for the review. It's nice to hear that you like my story and it brought you to laughter :)

To mavow1, thanks for the review. Don't worry I don't plan on Misaki telling anyone she's reincarnated.

To Shae Vizla, thanks for another review :) and I'm happy to hear that you enjoyed this chapter. I've been trying to make my characters and their growth seem realistic so I'm glad you liked how I've been shaping their characters. I don't plan on making Misaki an infiltrator but I feel like it is actually something she'd be well suited for. I wanted to lead up to Itachi and Misaki having a conversation about family and betrayal and felt that a mission like that would be perfect. Naruto won't be appearing in this chapter but he will appear in the story soon.

To lilnudger82, thanks for another review! It's awesome to know that you found this chapter great.

* * *

 **Chapter 13: Unexpected Meeting**

It had been three months since Misaki's and Itachi's first B-ranked mission. Shortly after the Tatsuya mission, both Itachi and Misaki were given infiltration lessons by Santa by order of the Hokage. People were less likely to suspect kids of being infiltrators and with both of their skill levels they were much more likely to be able to escape unscathed than other older chunin.

It was interesting to learn the art of infiltration. Misaki excelled at their lessons as she already was quite skilled manipulating and acting from her past life and Santa's lessons only improved her pre-existing skills. Itachi genius mind enabled him to learn the lessons and understand Santa's teachings quickly but he had more difficultly applying said skills.

That was not to say that Itachi was bad at infiltrating. He wasn't, he still excelled as he did in all areas of the shinobi arts. Infiltration skills just didn't come to him as easily as they did Misaki. For example where Misaki was highly trained in the art of conversation and used to using words to mislead due to her past life, it was a skill that seemed difficult for Itachi to master. He was able to do it rather proficiently but lacked the nuanced mastery that Misaki had achieved.

Aside from their first infiltration mission, Misaki and Itachi had been assigned to one more. Like their previous infiltration mission they were on a team with Santa. Unlike the Tatsuya mission, Santa did not go undercover. Only Itachi and Misaki did. As it was only a c-ranked infiltration mission he was there to gauge their infiltration skills and offer assistance if needed.

The mission was to infiltrate a drug smuggling ring that was being run out of Gamatori. A low level group of thugs had begun snatching orphaned children off the streets to train and use as drug couriers. Their job was to infiltrate the smuggling ring, identify the members, and apprehend them. Within three days, they had infiltrated the ring, identified the two ringleaders and other members, and apprehended them.

That was the last infiltration mission they had done so far. As they had proved they were capable of completing B-rank missions from the successful completion of the Tatsuya mission, they were occasionally assigned other B-ranks. They usually were assigned C-rank missions though.

They continued to do missions with Shogo and Choza-sensei but they also got assigned missions with other chunin and sometimes jonin. When they weren't doing missions, they met up for team training when they could. Choza-sensei continued to help them improve their various skills. He helped them hone their taijutsu and taught them more ninjutsu.

With Choza-sensei's help Misaki had added several more water and wind ninjutsus to her repertoire. Choza-sensei had taught her and Shogo shunshin as Itachi had already learned the skill from his cousin. With shunshin and increasing her speed at creating ice, no one would be able to keep her from getting into her ice mirrors like Itachi had during their match in the Chunin exam finals. Aside from her kekkei genkai proficiency, she finished mastering the crane style of taijutsu Gai had been teaching her. She put improving her fuinjutsu skills on the back burner because while she could create her own basic fuinjutsu seals she hadn't been able to find how to create more complex seals or layer seals.

Without a teacher or any kind of references it was a slow pace of constant trial and error. So far she had been unable to create anything more than basic seals. She was confident that she would figure it out with time but there was a more pressing thing she wanted to spend her time learning.

She wasn't giving up on sealing but she focused on starting to learn medical ninjutsu skills. Their missions would only increase in difficulty and Misaki had realized how useful medical ninjutsu was when a teammate on one of her b-rank missions got injured. Her other teammate had been able to heal the wound enough so he could make it back to Konoha. Misaki wasn't planning on making medical ninjutsu her primary focus as she was a firm believer that the strongest defense was offense but she wanted to learn enough to be able to heal her teammates if need be.

Out of her genin team, she was most suited to pick up medical ninjutsu. Shogo didn't have the control for medical ninjutsu. Itachi definitely had enough control to learn medical ninjutsu but if there was a serious fight that resulted in injuries that needed to be healed he probably wouldn't have chakra for it. With his small chakra reserve he most likely would be low on or out of chakra by the end of that fight. Misaki had the reserves, control, and desire to learn. Besides with Haku pursuing the path of becoming a ninja knowing medical ninjutsu would always be useful. She finished studying several anatomy books, herb encyclopedias, poison making books, and antidote crafting books recommended for medical nin in training. Poison and antidote making were fairly similar to potion making. Misaki had just started on practicing her mystical palm jutsu on fish a month ago.

For Misaki, life couldn't be better. Misaki was less worried about Itachi than she had been. After her initial conversation with Itachi the morning after their first B-rank, she had noticed that gradually he seemed like he was less weighed down. Itachi still seemed stressed but far less stressed than he had been before. The conversation with his father must have gone over reasonably well.

Her book, Pottu Haru and the Sorcerer's Stone, had become an instant hit when it came out two months ago. Not only had bookstores in cities all over fire country ordered copies of the book but bookstores in other countries also ordered shipments of the books. With fifteen percent of the retail price of every book sold, she was no longer worried about Haku's future if anything happened to her. Her editor, Megumi-san, had even been asking her to start writing a sequel.

She had even managed to get yesterday off to attend Haku's entrance ceremony to the academy and today to walk him to his first day of the academy.

After walking Haku to his first day of the academy, Misaki wondered what to do on her day off. It was a beautiful, breezy April day. Itachi, Shogo, and Choza-sensei were doing team training and she didn't feel like training on one of her rare full days off so she couldn't hang out with either of her teammates. As she was making her way from the academy, she was surprised to be stopped by a member of the genin corps.

"Are you Yuki Misaki?" Seeing her nod, the genin continued, "I have a message from someone named Toyo Megumi for you. She would like you to come see her ASAP."

Thanking the genin for the message, she headed to Leaf Publishing to see what her editor could possibly want. Misaki had just seen Megumi-san last week to talk about a possible sequel so she had no clue what Megumi could possibly want to talk to her about.

"So Megumi-san what was so important that you hired a genin corps messenger to find me?" Misaki asked as she made herself comfortable on the super plush armchair in front of Megumi's desk. Man, she really needed to get herself something similar to these for her apartment. They were really comfortable. The couch she had initially bought when Haku and she first moved here was a cheap and comfortable but it didn't compare to how comfortable these were. They could definitely afford better furniture now.

"I know you said that you didn't want to reveal your identity to anyone but there was a man who was very insistent upon meeting you. I told him that you wished to keep your identity a secret but he insisted that you would want to meet him. He gave me a note to give to you. He said if you still didn't want to meet him after reading the note then fine but if you did that he would meet you at the Nakamori Park on the bench in front of the fountain at seven o'clock tonight." Megumi said as she handed Misaki the note.

As Misaki read the note she felt like the blood in her veins had turned into ice. The note was written in elegant script in a language she never thought she'd see again. Written in English was one word, the word Hogwarts. Raising her eyes to meet Megumi's eyes she rapidly demanded, "Who gave you this note? What was their name? What did they look like?"

"Woah, I guess that means he was right. You do want to meet him. Sorry Misaki-sensei, he asked me to keep his identity a secret and I promised I would do so. I guarantee that he's friendly though." Megumi said.

Misaki curtly thanked Megumi for the note before leaving her office. The instant Megumi had said that she promised to keep his identity a secret Misaki had known there was no point in questioning her further. One thing she knew about her editor was that she kept her promises.

But Megumi wouldn't just agree to that for any random stranger. She must know him or know enough about him to think that he wouldn't harm her in anyway. At the end of the day, Megumi was an editor and Misaki was a new bestselling author. She wouldn't want to jeopardize their working relationship.

Misaki had not signed a contract with Leaf Publishing for anything more than her original book. She could easily leave and go to a different publisher. Misaki could've threatened to bring her next book to a different publisher but she liked Megumi and respected her character. Besides now that she was over her initial shock, she already kind of had an idea of who had written that note. The only thing left to do was verify her suspicions.

Although she had wanted to enjoy her day off with Haku, she needed to see who else had come over here from her old world. So after she picked up Haku after his first day at the academy, she chatted with him until 6 when she made him dinner before leaving to go to Nakamori Park.

She arrived at the park at 6:30. However, Misaki did not go sit at the bench that he had said he was going to meet her at. Instead Misaki scaled a nearby tree, suppressed her chakra, and lay in wait. As 6:50 rolled around, a vaguely familiar figure strolled into the park and sat down on the bench.

Misaki could tell immediately that the man was under a henge. At first, Misaki thought maybe she had been mistaken about the identity of the person. But as she looked closer she realized the vain bastard had henged himself into a younger version of the last picture she had seen of him. Misaki made her way down the tree and walked over to the bench before saying, "Hello Sirius."

The long, shiny black hair framing a handsome aristocratic face paired with striking grey eyes. The man on the bench could be no other. Though Misaki had never met her second cousin who had been blasted off the Black family tree, she had seen pictures from Harry's albums and it was impossible not to recognize the Black family features in his face. Some of them were features that Misaki had seen every day in the mirror in her own face when she had been Draco. Besides with the way Misaki had died as Draco she had figured that if there was another person from her past world it had to be him.

Sirius' eyes showed a brief flash of immense surprise at her recognition of him but his outward body language didn't give any hints of his surprise. So whoever he actually was in this world, he was very well trained. If Misaki hadn't been as skilled at reading people as she was and specifically looking for a reaction, she probably wouldn't have been able to catch the flash of surprise in his eyes before Sirius hid it.

"How did you recognize me and how do you know that name?" The man asked.

Misaki arched an eyebrow in response. "How about you drop the henge first and then we can talk about how I recognized you and know your name. Besides you already know I'm the author of that book, why wouldn't I recognize you?"

"Let's go to Kikyo's Tearoom first. I'm rather famous and I don't want to give anyone the wrong idea."

What the hell did he mean by he didn't want to give anyone the wrong idea? Misaki looked at herself and looked at him. She thought about it for a few seconds and then it clicked. "You're not some kind of weirdo in this world are you? Sirius or not, I'm not about to go to a place with private tearooms with a random stranger."

Sirius' lips twitched in amusement. "No, I'm not a weirdo. Look, I'm sure your editor told you that I was friendly, right? Besides if I wanted to harm you, I wouldn't need to bring you to a private place to do so." He briefly unfurled his chakra before suppressing it again and Misaki was intimidated by the strength of it. Whoever he was, she was right about him being well trained. Misaki shrugged before gesturing for him to lead the way. The brief feeling of his chakra was more than enough to prove the veracity of his statement. If he had wanted to harm her, she was way outclassed.

As they went into a private tea room, they waited in silence after placing their orders. After the waitress delivered their tea and cakes, Sirius put his hand on the table and Misaki could feel him use his chakra slightly.

"Before you ask, I was just placing a privacy seal. I'm sure neither of us wants our conversation to be overheard." He released his henge, "Now you know who I am. Let me see if I can guess if who you are. Hermione? Ginny? Luna? No? Who are you then?"

BLOODY HELL Misaki thought to herself as she looked at Sirius. No wonder he had been surprised that she recognized him. Time obviously passed faster in this world than it did in their past world. He was a lot bloody older than she thought he would be. He had died during their fifth year so she had guessed he would be around 19.

Hearing his guesses of her identity, she choked on her tea. She could see why he'd guess Hermoine but Ginny and Luna… really? Misaki could only imagine his reaction to her true identity. He had been known to despise all members of their family.

"Actually, I'm Draco Malfoy. My name in this world is Yuki Misaki."

"HAHAHAHAHAHA seriously? Holy shit. Cissy and good ol' Lucy's precious heir became a delicate looking flower of a girl? The ice prince of slytherin is now a princess! As a Yuki clan member you're literally an ice princess now!" Sirius gleefully crowed out as his face cracked into a giant shit eating grin and he literally rolled on the floor laughing.

Misaki could see why he found it was amusing. If she had found out that Sirius had been reborn a girl she would've cackled too so she understood the first few minutes of laughter. Ten minutes plus of laughter however was ridiculous and a bit irritating. Misaki arched an eyebrow and said, "Well even though I was reborn as the opposite gender at least I was fortunate to be reborn with good looks."

"What? You're saying that this mug of mine isn't handsome? Don't you know who I am? I am the hermit of Mount Myoboku, the wise and immortal spirit. I am the one and only great toad mountain sage!" Jiraiya said as he strutted through a gamut of traditional kabuki poses.

Misaki's left eye twitched as she watched Jiraiya run through a bunch of different traditional kabuki poses. She couldn't believe she had been related to someone who could actually say and do all of that with a straight face.

"I've heard of the sannin Jiraiya in the academy before but I didn't realize you were him. I'm sure you want to hear about harry. I will tell you what I know about from when he was eighteen to twenty four but I can't tell you any more than that as I died at that age."

"Ohoho, so you have heard of my greatness before. Now that we've introduced ourselves, as you guessed I want to know about Harry and everything that happened in the magical world from after I died until your unfortunate demise. With the time that I thought had elapsed, I didn't know if a biography or something had been published. But knowing you died at twenty four, I'm assuming from all the information that was in your novel was stuff he told you after you became friends. There were too many details in your novel that he would probably only tell to a friend. Harry would have never published a biography so soon after the war if he even did at all."

"Yes, after the light side won the war he and I became great friends. Hermione, Harry, and all the Weasleys except for Fred survived the war. Dumbledore was killed during our sixth year. Our cousin Nymphadora and Remus Lupin perished in the final battle. Obviously Voldemort was vanquished and Bellatrix was killed by Mrs. Weasley. I can tell you everything I know about Harry's life after the war but not tonight. I have a younger brother I have to get back to. If I can get tomorrow off, I will tell you all about him tomorrow." Misaki said.

"Ok, meet me here tomorrow at 9. Don't worry about asking for tomorrow off, I'll talk to the Hokage. He was my sensei, you know. Just tell me one thing before you leave… was he happy?" Jiraiya asked pensively.

Misaki assured Jiraiya that Harry had found happiness after the war before agreeing to meet him tomorrow at 9 and heading home to Haku.

After Misaki left, Jiraiya headed to one of his favorite bars and ordered a bottle of sake. As he sipped on his warm sake he mused that finding the author of that novel had turned out better than he had hoped for when he first spotted the novel. Jiraiya had been making his way through Tanzaku-gai two days ago when he passed a bookstore on his left. He had casually glanced at the posters lining the bookstore window to check out his new book's poster when one specific new best-seller poster caught his eye.

His eye had widened as he read the book's title, Pottu Haru and the Sorcerer's Stone. Curious, he walked into the bookstore and purchased a Pottu Haru and the Sorcerer's Stone. He had originally bought the book as a lark and with just a tiny bit of hope in his heart.

What were the chances that he would see a name so close to that of his godson's in this world? He had sat down on a bench to peruse the book. As he read the first chapter, his eyes had grown wider and wider. Seeing that the novelist used the same publishing house as him, he immediately left Tanzaku-gai for Konoha.

He had spoken to Megumi at Leaf Publishing and he had been disheartened by the fact that the author had stipulated in their contract that they would remain anonymous. But he wasn't about to let that stop him from possible information on his godson's wellbeing. He wasn't a world renowned ninja for nothing.

He had given the note to Megumi and laid in waiting for the author to show up. Despite telling Megumi that he would leave the author alone if they didn't want to meet him, he had no intention of doing that. When he had initially seen Misaki walk into the building he thought she was someone's daughter or doing a mission but when he saw her walk into Megumi's office he realized that she was the author. He had been hoping for and expecting someone older, like a friend of Harry's who would've heard the information straight from Harry and could tell him the little things that a stranger wouldn't know.

Before he had known that time passed much faster there, seeing her age he thought that someone had written a biography about Harry that she had read. With the amount of details in the novel, he figured that she would still at least know whatever information about him that was public and that was better than nothing.

Seeing the Konoha headband across her forehead, he had discretely inquired about kunoichi her age and with her physical characteristics. His inquires had yielded results and he found out her name was Yuki Misaki, a genius prodigy child. She was on a team with the Uchiha prodigy, an Inuzuka, and Choza as her sensei. Hearing that Choza was her sensei delighted Jiraiya. He was good friends with Choza so he had paid Choza a visit under the guise of catching up with an old friend.

While he was with Choza, he had casually mentioned that he heard through the grapevine that he had gotten a new genin team. Choza was more than happy to gush about his new genin team giving Jiraiya more information about Misaki. According to Choza, she was an amiable and very intelligent girl. She was an extremely talented kunoichi; one that Choza thought would be able to make jonin in a few years despite her young age. She had prodigal talent in most of the shinobi arts and was interested in sealing.

He hadn't been surprised by her interest in sealing. When he had first discovered sealing in this world, he had been struck by how similar it was to ancient runes. With Hiruzen-sensei's help he had been able to bridge the differences between the two and start on his path to becoming the seal master he was today.

After leaving Choza's he had done some delightful research for a few hours before heading to the park at 6. He had waited there until she arrived at 6:30 and scaled a tree waiting for him to arrive. Around 6:50, he had henged into a younger version of his old self and strolled into the park. He had been floored when she recognized him.

At Kikyo's Tearoom hearing Misaki was Draco Malfoy who had died at the age of twenty four made him realize that time must pass way faster here compared to his old universe. It also made him realize that Draco must have been friends with Harry. Jiraiya had been overjoyed to realize that he would be able to hear about Harry's life from someone who had been his friend, someone who would know much more than a person who had just read a biography of Harry. Finishing the last of his sake, he ordered a top shelf sake bottle to take with him and left to pay his old sensei a visit.

"Sensei, I need you to give Yuki Misaki the next few days off while I'm in town." Jiraiya said not bothering to mince words with his sensei.

Hiruzen raised an eyebrow at the request. He racked his brain trying to think of a reason why Jiraiya would have any business with the aforementioned kunoichi. As far as he knew they didn't know each other nor had any reason to have any business with each other. Although he did vaguely recall Choza saying something about her having an interest in seals… "Are you planning on teaching her fuinjutsu? I believe Choza had mentioned she had been interested in seals."

Jiraiya shifted uncomfortably at the thought of training another in fuinjutsu. Choza had mentioned that too when he saw him but he was still grieving over the death of his protégé. Teaching another would be painful but… she would be sharing with him information about his beloved godson that he thought he would never be able to have. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to give her a few pointers… Misaki was family in a way. "Perhaps, I haven't decided yet. So are you going to give her the days off or not?"

"Very well, I will. She is a very exceptional kunoichi. I hope you do decide to guide her in fuinjutsu."

Jiraiya grinned and pulled out the high quality sake he had bought at the bar. "Now, tell me sensei did you enjoy my latest book?"

The next morning, Jiraiya woke up feeling happier than he had in a long time. He made his way to Kikyo's Tearoom with a spring in his step. In a few short minutes he would be able to hear about Harry's life. Something he had thought he would never had the chance to do once he had woken up in this world. He had hoped that light had won and Harry was living happily but he had no way of knowing.

Once when he was six years old Jiraiya had an extremely realistic dream of Harry. In his dream he had been summoned by the resurrection stone to speak with Harry before he went to his death. When Harry had asked him if death was painful he had assured Harry dying was not painful that it was easier than falling asleep. He had reassured dream Harry that dying wasn't painful because he hadn't wanted dream Harry to be troubled. In his dream he had also seen Lily, James, and Remus as ghosts. They had all told Harry that they would stay with him as he went to confront Voldemort and then that was the end of the dream.

After that dream, Jiraiya had woken up in cold sweat with dread lingering in the pit of his stomach. It had felt so real. Harry, James, Remus, and Lily's faces and expressions were all so vivid and clear. In the dream their faces were much clearer than he had been able to picture them after not having seen Lily and James alive for almost three decades. It had been so long that he hadn't even remembered Lily's voice had that slight bell-like quality to it until he heard her voice in the dream.

Jiraiya had tried to comfort himself with the fact that it was just a dream but… the resurrection stone was rumored to have incredible powers and to be able to raise the dead. No one knew what the resurrection stone was truly capable of. He had hoped that it wasn't real. That Moony had not somehow perished before the end of the war. That Harry hadn't been walking to his death before the dream cut out. In his gut though, he felt like it had been real.

Moony's and Harry's possible death had tormented him for decades. It grieved Jiraiya to hear that Remus perished in the final battle leaving behind a newborn son. He had wanted Moony to survive. But now knowing that Harry lived and was happy after the war eased the pain he had always felt when he thought about Harry's fate. What happened after Harry snuck out of the castle was one of things he needed to ask Misaki about. While he knew she might not know the answer, he had to ask.

Shaking off his dark thoughts, Jiraiya greeted Misaki with a friendly wave before following her into the teahouse. After they're seated and have ordered. Misaki began telling Jiraiya what happened in the magical world starting from the end of Harry's fifth year. She told him about the mission Voldemort had given her, Harry finding out about horcruxes, her shameful attempts on dumbledore's life and why she did it, how Dumbledore had been poisoned while retrieving a fake horcrux. Misaki informed him of the events of the astronomy tower, snape killing Dumbledore as per Dumbledore's request to maintain his cover, Dumbledore's funeral.

She told him all of the events and things Harry had told her about his seventh year leading up to the Battle of Hogwarts. As Misaki told him thing after thing leading up to the final battle, Jiraiya's grimace and the stormy, disturbed expression in his eyes had become more pronounced.

Listening to the rough time Harry had during his sixth and sevenths years of schooling, Jiraiya wished that he had been able to be there for his godson. His time during his seventh year when he was on the run went from bad to worse to horrifying. Finding out that Misaki had purposely hid their identities to try to save them made Jiraiya think fondly of a member of the black family for the first time in a long ass time. Hearing about his capture in the Malfoy manors and Hermione's torture by Bellatrix's hands set his teeth on edge.

As Misaki's stories got closer and closer to the events of the final battle, Jiraiya tampered down on his urge to interrupt to ask her whether she knew if Harry had used the resurrection stone.

"Do you know if Harry used the resurrection stone or if he walked through the Forbidden Forest to confront Voldemort?" Jiraiya questioned unable to keep himself from asking any longer.

"Yes, Harry did go alone to confront Voldemort in the Forbidden Forest. How did you know that though? I'm sorry but I don't know what he might or might not have done after sneaking out of the castle. Harry never spoke to anyone about the events that occurred when after he left to confront Voldemort. Not even to his wife."

Jiraiya explained the vivid dream to Misaki. How he dreamed that Harry used the resurrection stone to bring back himself, Remus, Lily, and James. How they had protected him from dementors on his trek to Voldemort.

Misaki hesitated before she said, "It is quite possible that he did use the resurrection stone. I do know that during that time he did have all three deathly hallows. Do you happen to remember what he was wearing in your dream?"

"I do remember what he was wearing. It was the first glimpse I had of my godson after dying and being reborn. Upon waking up, I had immediately sketched all of them." Jiraiya paused to give Misaki an incredulous look. "But how would that help? Unless… do you happen to remember what he was wearing the day of the final battle?"

"Yes, I actually do. On the day of the final battle, he saved me from burning to death from fiendfyre by flying me out of a burning room on the back of his broom. That memory will forever be etched into my brain. I will never forget one second of that event even something as insignificant as what he was wearing as he flew me to safety. He was wearing a light brown leather jacket, blue jeans, and blue shirt." Misaki replied seriously.

Upon hearing Misaki's description of Harry's clothes, Jiraiya froze simultaneously disturbed and elated. He was disturbed because Harry had been walking alone to his death with only spirits for company. But he was elated that he had actually gotten the chance to see Harry, Remus, James, and Lily one last time. He had never thought he would've been actually able to see them again after being reborn in this world.

Misaki gave Jiraiya a few minutes to regain his composure. When he signaled that he was ready, she continued telling him about the day of the final battle and the subsequent trials after the war. By the time she had finished telling him about all of that, it was already eight pm and the teahouse was about to close.

Seeing Misaki glance at the clock, Jiraiya asked if she had to go take care of her brother.

"No, I asked a family friend to watch over him tonight. I wanted to be able to tell you as much as I could about Harry's life and what happened in the magical world. I figured you were probably dying for news about what had happened. If I were in your position I would want to hear about my family and friends as soon as I could. We can continue this at my apartment but you should probably henge into someone less conspicuous."

Jiraiya henged into a girl Misaki's age and they made their way to her apartment. He was touched by the fact that Misaki would take his desperate need to hear about anything pertaining to Harry and the magical world into account. They hadn't been friends or really even had any type of familial relationship in their old world. Hell, he had never even met Draco. They were complete strangers.

Choza had said that Misaki was a good kid and he knew Harry wouldn't have befriended Draco if he hadn't changed for the better but he hadn't been expecting that much consideration for a total stranger. As he sat down onto the couch in Misaki's apartment, he decided he would help her with her fuinjutsu. Her calling him sensei would be too painful to bear so he'd have to figure out something else for her to call him but he would help her when he could.

"So, you mentioned harry had a wife. Did he end up marrying Hermione? I had always thought that the two of them would end up together. They truly understood each other and had great chemistry. From what I, myself, heard from Harry and you've told me Hermione always was there by Harry's side through thick and thin."

"You know I always thought the two of them would end up together. Most of the Hogwarts students that saw them interact thought they would end up together as well. But no, they did not end up together. Harry married Ginny and Hermione married Ron. Shortly before I died, Ginny actually gave birth to their first child, a son that they named James Sirius."

Hearing that Harry had given his firstborn child James and his names brought uncontrollable tears to Jiraiya's eyes. Seeing the tears streaming down Jiraiya's face, Misaki excused herself to the kitchen to give him some privacy. Jiraiya was grateful for the privacy as he couldn't stop his tears from falling. He had failed his godson so horribly but Harry had still honored him by naming his first child after him.

On that horrible Halloween night, Harry should have been his first priority and he shouldn't have gone after Pettigrew. But he had been so angry at Pettigrew's betrayal. So furious that Pettigrew's traitorous cowardly self had caused Lily's and James' death. Unable to see past his haze of fury he had raced after that traitorous rat determined to bring him to justice.

Aside from failing Harry there, he had also been too overconfident at the Department of Mysteries. He knew Bellatrix was an extremely skilled dualist but he had nonetheless been confident he would defeat her. If he had only been more careful, maybe he would've been able to be there to help his godson during the difficult trials he had been forced to endure.

But his tears weren't only anguished tears; he was also thrilled to hear that Harry had achieved his dream of having a family. After the terrible row with Ron during the beginning of the triwizard tournament, Harry had angrily voiced to Sirius that Ron didn't even know how lucky he was to have a caring family and siblings. That he would gladly trade every last galleon in his vault and all of his accursed fame that Ron was so jealous of to have the same.

Then one night during the summer after the horrible conclusion of the Triwizard tournament, in a small and hesitant voice that broke Sirius' heart Harry had quietly confided in Sirius that he was terrified that he wouldn't survive his eventual battle against Voldemort. That night he had told Sirius that his deepest wish was to be able to survive and be able to start his own family one day. After all these decades, finding out that Harry had survived and started his own family like he had wanted brought profound joy and a semblance of peace to Jiraiya.

When he finally had his emotions under control, he walked over to Misaki's kitchen and discovered she had been heating up leftovers for them. On the counter there were two sake saucers and a few bottles of sake as well.

"You have sake in your house? You're a little young to be drinking, no?" Jiraiya asked.

"Those are mostly for you. Anyways as you know, I'm not actually ten. Besides if a person is old enough to kill, they're sure as hell old enough to drink. After my first kill, I bought a stash of sake in case I ever needed some and sealed it in a cupboard. I haven't drunk any of my stash yet but I figured that you could probably use it." Misaki replied as she placed the leftovers she had been heating onto two plates and brought them over to the dining table.

Jiraiya grabbed the two saucers and bottles of sake and followed her to the table. They clinked each of their sake dishes against each other before each downing a shot of sake. As they ate and Jiraiya sipped on sake, Misaki regaled him with what happened after the war.

The post-war stories were much happier and filled Jiraiya with contentment to hear them. Misaki shared that Harry and Ron had become Aurors and made up one of the best Auror teams that the Auror Corps had seen since Sirius and James. She told him about who had ended up marrying who and having kids. She continued telling him everything she could think of until the time approached the early morning hours of the next day and the sun began to rise in the sky.

After Misaki finished Jiraiya bowed deeply to her and said, "Thank you so much for sharing all of that. Words cannot even begin to describe how profoundly grateful I am. After all these decades, I finally know what happened to Harry. I can now have some measure of closure. Ever since being reborn in this world, not knowing what happened to Harry has haunted me. I'm in town for a few more days before I have to leave again. When I am in Konoha I will try to help you with your fuinjutsu when I can. All I ask is that you don't call me sensei."

Misaki agreed to not call him sensei and thanked him for his generous offer before she asked him if he could tell her stories about her mother growing up. Jiraiya agreed before leaving for his hotel to crash.

After Jiraiya left, as Misaki laid in bed she thought about the events that lead to her death ten years ago. She generally tried to avoid thinking about how she died. She and Luna were unspeakables tasked with figuring the best way to ward or seal off the Veil. There had been rumors that a group of radical extremists planned to use the veil for nefarious purposes. She and Luna had just figured out the best runic array to seal the Veil and were in the middle of etching out the runes when a group of five wizards burst in followed by a pair of Aurors.

They teamed up with the Aurors to take five wizards down. They had managed to take out four of them when out of the corner of her eyes, Misaki saw the remaining wizard cast a knockback jinx at Luna as her back faced the veil. There was no time to warn Luna so Misaki jumped in the path of the spell and was pushed into the Veil. She had grown to be great friends with Luna during the five years they had been coworkers and she had been three months pregnant with twins. The last thing she had seen before slipping through the Veil to her death was Luna trying to save him and that the Aurors had subdued the last wizard. Her last thought before falling into a sake aided sleep was that if she dreamed she hoped it devoid of any nightmares of her past. Telling Jiraiya the events of her sixth and seventh year had stirred up a lot of unpleasant memories.

The next few days until Jiraiya left, he greatly helped her with her fuinjutsu theory. During one lesson they decided that as he didn't want to be called sensei, Misaki would call him Jiraiya-oji. Jiraiya had bemoaned the fact that it made him seem old but it was better than her calling him Jiraiya-san or sensei. She done a lot of trial and experimentation and had been able to compose her own basic seals. Misaki had been on the right path to composing more complex seals. But she had been stumped on the exact way of creating more complex seals and applying touch seals. She learned from Jiraiya that the proper way to layer seals and that way that complex seals were layered and written affected their stability and usage.

Jiraiya had actually been surprised by how much progress she had been able to achieve in fuinjutsu without formal instruction. With his help, she now understood the theory behind composing complex seals. She knew she wouldn't be proficient enough to be able to apply touch seals for a while but at least now she understood the theory behind it. Before he left he gave her an old fuinjutsu notebook of his to assist in her fuinjutsu studies.

When Jiraiya left, Misaki was sad to see him go. Although she had shared stories of her past with Haku, it was different talking to someone who had lived in that world and understood what she was talking about. To Haku, her magic filled stories were all fiction. With Jiraiya, he had actually experienced that world himself and it had been wonderful to talk to someone who had actually knew of that world and its people. To commiserate over their lost precious people and the loss of things such as firewhiskey or racing brooms. To smile about the crazy prank inventions that George Weasley had created or the funny moments that their shared loved ones experienced.

A month after Jiraiya left, Shogo, Natsumi, and Daiki left with Choza-sensei and Natsumi and Daiki's sensei for the spring Chunin exams in Kumo. Misaki had been surprised that after the Hyuuga incident Konoha shinobi were going to attend the Kumo exams.

However before they left, Choza-sensei had explained that while distrust was high against Kumo in Konoha that refusing a personal invitation from the Raikage to attend the exams would only add fuel to the fire. Konoha wasn't sending any candidates with unsealed dojutsu or any green genin. They were only sending experienced genin to showcase their strength and dissuade Kumo from attempting anything else.

The logic had made sense to both Misaki and Itachi but it hadn't made either of them any happier to know that Shogo would be there in Kumo without them. They both knew that he was strong, more than capable of making chunin, and didn't have a kekkei genkai that Kumo coveted. But that didn't change the fact that their teammate would be in a country that had almost come to the cusp of war with Konoha less than a year ago.

The exam had started in the middle May and the finals were on June 12th not including the journey back from Kumo so Shogo ended up missing Itachi's eleventh birthday. Itachi, Misaki, Shisui, Taro, Taka, and Hana celebrated Itachi's birthday together the day after his actual birthday as always. They played in the Naka River, did cannonballs off the nearby waterfall, or talked as they lazed around in the warm afternoon sunshine. In between playing they snacked on sweet refreshing watermelon, dango, and chilled green tea.

As evening approached they settled down to enjoy the delicious picnic that Itachi's mom had packed. Mikoto had packed the picnic full of delicious food. It had Itachi's favorite onigiri, inari-zushi, chicken karaage, croquettes, cucumber salad, and various side dishes. After the sun set, they lit fireworks before they sung Itachi happy birthday and cut the red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting that Misaki had made. Over the years it had become a tradition for Misaki to make her friends' birthday cakes.

Itachi's birthday had been a blast and it was the first time in a while that they all had time to spend a day off together. They had a lot of fun but they had felt Shogo's absence keenly. Misaki knew it was inevitable that as they grew older they would get busier but it was the first time that one of team six's members had missed a teammate's birthday. Since they had become teammates three years ago, they had all been able to be there for each other's birthday.

When Shogo returned from the exams happy and unharmed a week after Itachi's birthday, Misaki and Itachi were excited that he was finally back. Prior to the exams, the longest they had gone without seeing each other for a mission or to hangout had been a week or two. During the finals, Shogo and Daiki ended up facing each other and this time Shogo defeated Daiki. He also defeated Natsumi in the next round before losing the final match to an Ame ninja. Natsumi, Daiki, and Shogo all received promotions to chunin for the prowess they showed in the exams.

Prior to him becoming a chunin, a lot of times Itachi or Misaki would be assigned other teammates for c-rank and b-rank missions. As Misaki and Itachi worked flawlessly together, they had yet to be assigned to missions without each other. Now that Shogo was a chunin as well, sometimes the three of them would even be assigned missions without Choza-sensei and be paired up with a different chunin or jonin.

As a genin, Shogo had rarely if ever gone on missions without Choza sensei. Misaki had thought that they would be doing more missions together now that their whole team was chunins but to her surprise they amount of missions they did together actually decreased. Now that Shogo was a chunin Choza, Itachi, and Misaki would often run missions without him.

With Shogo's burgeoning tracking skills, he began running more tracking oriented missions. He was assigned on missions with other more experienced Inuzuka, Hyuuga, or Aburame clan members so he could improve his tracking skills through the guidance of more experienced trackers and field experience. With Shogo's impressive speed, nose, and desire to learn his tracking skills flourished.

* * *

In a way it was the end of an era. Itachi, Misaki, and Shogo were no longer unexperienced genin following their jonin-sensei like ducklings. They were now all chunin. Misaki and Itachi had even been chunin for over six months now. While they still took some missions together, they no longer took the majority of missions together as they had as genin.

They had all changed so much from the first day that they had been assigned as teammates. Shogo was now sixteen and in the throes of puberty. His voice had just started cracking and he shot up in height like a beanpole. At 5'6 he towered over Misaki's 4'11 and he was still growing. Shogo was so much taller than her that he jokingly used her head as an armrest from time to time. Even Itachi had finally inched taller than Misaki. He had grown an inch or two and now was 5'1. It sucked being the shortest one on the team.

Considering her mother had only been 5'5 and that man had not been that tall, Misaki never expected to reach the height that she had been as Draco. She knew she probably would be the shortest out of her genin teammates from this point forth. She just hoped she didn't stay at under five feet. She wasn't too worried as she hadn't even had her eleventh birthday yet.

Not only had their physical appearances changed, they had become much more skilled as well. In the past six months they had all increased their skill exponentially.

* * *

inari-zushi: sushi rice stuffed in seasoned fried tofu pouches

chicken kaarage: marinated or unmarinated chicken tossed in a light batter and fried


	14. Mountain Country Mission

A/N: I realized I didn't put the circumstances surrounding Draco death into chapter 13 before I posted it, so I added it. Just wanted to let people that had already read chapter 13 know in case they wanted to go back and read it.

To silly60, thanks for the review!

To Lady Kira, thanks for another review :)

The following paragraph addresses the whole bad godfather thing mentioned in both of your guys' review or anyone else that is interested.

Jiraiya/Sirius is a great shinobi but also a flawed man. In Harry's case he definitely messed up. I feel like Sirius allowed his rage at Lily and James' deaths to cloud his judgment and he made the bad decision to chase after Peter which led to his forcible separation from Harry. In my story for Naruto's case, I felt like it was a combination of things. Jiraiya needed to hunt down the masked attacker that ripped the kyuubi from kushina for Naruto's and the village's sake. Also Jiraiya/Sirius has pretty much lost everyone close to him aside from his sensei. James, Lily, Remus, Harry, Orochimaru, his students (minato & the three ame kids), Sakumo, Tsunade, and the list goes on and on. It is true that it was easier for him to allow Hiruzen to look after Naruto as it was probably immensely painful for him to look at someone that looked so much like his beloved protégé but wasn't. Godson or not it doesn't change the fact that even looking at Naruto there is a huge resemblance that would remind him of Minato every day. Unlike during his life as Sirius, I feel like Jiraiya had less of a choice in the matter this time. Even if he wanted to stay and look after Naruto, it wouldn't be what was safest for Naruto or the village. Any hint of Naruto's relation to the yondaime like the yondaime's sensei hanging around or raising him could've placed Naruto in grave danger. All it would take is one disgruntled civilian or shinobi mentioning their connection or even Naruto innocently mentioning their connection to place Naruto in grave danger. Not only does Minato have a plethora of enemies but I doubt Jiraiya is lacking in those as well. So he relied on his sensei, Hiruzen, to look after Naruto as he hunted down threats to the village. Also Jiraiya plays a major role in the village's safety as the spymaster for Konoha. Something he would not be able to successfully do from within Konoha. Not saying that any of these reasons changes the fact that he is not there for Naruto or the fact that if I ever had kids I wouldn't make him their godfather but in my story at least those are the reasons for his choice. In my story when they do eventually meet there will probably be angst on Jiraiya's side and Naruto's once he learns that Jiraiya is his godfather.

To deathgeonous, thanks for the nice review :) glad you enjoyed the chapter.

To Darkjaden, thank you for the review. Sorry but there won't be any other reincarnated people in my story. I added in a bit about the circumstances surrounding Draco's death in the previous chapter that will explain why. Even if I had chosen to put another HP character in my story it wouldn't be Harry. Judging from the amount of anguish Cedric's, Sirius', and other people's death caused him, I feel like him being a shinobi or being in the shinobi world would break his spirit. Even against Voldemort who he had more reason to hate than anyone in the world he still chose to use a non-lethal spell to defeat him. Plus after the war and everything, to me he deserves his happy ending. Not to be ripped from his family and loved ones and thrust into a world that would decimate aspects of his personality. Both Sirius and Draco have shown in the series that their morals are definitely questionable, with Sirius his actions towards Severus (like the unwarranted bullying and leading him to the Shrieking Shack despite knowing it could result in Severus' death) and for Draco his actions throughout his Hogwarts years (trying to get Hagrid thrown in prison via buckbeak, the inquisition squad, repairing the vanishing cabinet, etc).

To Tsukoblue, thanks! I'm glad you liked my chapter and usage of Jiraiya. I've been dying to write him into the story as I had planned from the beginning on making him Sirius' reincarnation :)

To Shae Vizla, thanks for another review! I decided that I would make Jiraiya a reincarnation of Sirius because I could easily see canon Jiraiya being him. As you said, they are both flamboyant, incurable flirts, and excellent at their chosen skills (for Jiraiya shinobi arts, for Sirius magic). Both were reputed to be cunning and intelligent as well as pranksters. I do like Regulus' character as well so I'll try to add in a little bit about him the next time they do meet. I figured that to Jiraiya, Regulus was a death eater and long dead. He's not someone he would ask about when he was asking Misaki about what happened to people in their world. As you guessed, Jiraiya viewed Orochimaru as a brother as he once had viewed James and Sirius would've gone to the ends of the earth to try to save James even from James' self. I'm glad you enjoyed the fluff with Itachi's birthday :)

To lilnudger82, thank you for the review! Yeah, it is sad that they aren't doing as much missions or able to spend as much time together. In the canon, it seems like teams whose skills complement each other and that work excellently together (ino-shika-cho, team kurenai, the sannin, etc) do stick together even as chunins and continue to do the majority of missions together. But other teams with varying skills (for example gai and his genin teammates) begin to go their separate ways slightly. In their case, their skills did work well but they were also teamed together because their personalities would work well together. Unlike their other classmates, Shogo did not show unwarranted anger or jealously at their superior skills. Despite their skill Misaki and Itachi aren't being sent on search and destroy missions or to hunt someone down yet due to their age so Shogo's specialized tracking skills are better suited for other missions with different teammates.

To mavow1, thanks for the rave review :D Sirius is almost one of my favorite characters from Harry Potter. I felt like after living as Jiraiya and the life of a shinobi that Sirius wouldn't be prejudiced against slytherins as he had been in the canon. I'm glad that you enjoyed the interactions between Draco and Sirius and found them natural. Misaki is definitely going to have some hilarious moments going through puberty as experiencing puberty as a girl versus as a guy is quite different.

To the guest that reviewed, thanks glad you liked the chapter!

To SilverMarkings, thanks for the review. There is some mention of other harry potter characters but it is a story set in the Naruto world that is mostly about said world. I have been rotating the story between the crossover section and regular Naruto section.

* * *

 **Chapter 14: Mountain Country Mission**

As Misaki-nee walked him to the Academy before leaving for what would be the longest mission she had been gone for before, Haku thought about how much he liked the academy so far. It had been almost four months since his first day at the academy and it was slowly approaching summer break.

He was kind of intimidated his first day at the academy. The third year students that had once been Misaki-nee's classmates and fourth year academy students had all stared at him after Misaki-nee had dropped him off at the academy. Most of the stares weren't mean but it was still intimidating nonetheless. A few of the older students, like Taro's cousin a third year student named Takuya, even approached him after school to ask him to tell his nee-chan they said hi.

Haku really liked his sensei and his classmates all were pretty nice. He had been happy to learn during his entrance ceremony that he had the same sensei, Hakka-sensei, which Misaki-nee had had before jumping to the graduating class. Initially, he had been worried that Hakka-sensei would expect him to be as crazy smart as his nee-chan was, but as the school days went by it was obvious that Hakka-sensei wasn't like that. She judged everyone solely on their own talents and skills not based on their family.

Almost all of his friends from civilian school had chosen not to go to the academy. Only his friend, Miyake Usagi, had chosen to attend the academy and she was in the other first year class so Haku had spent the first few weeks of school making new friends among his classmates. He became good friends with two of his classmates an Uchiha girl named Satomi and a Yamanaka boy named Haruhito.

Haku hadn't realized his nee-chan even had fans nor that Satomi idolized his nee-chan until the first time Satomi had met his nee-chan after school. The instant change from Satomi's normal placid expression to extremely gleeful excitement had scared Haku a little. Haruhito and Haku had commiserated that girls were scary before backing away slowly from where Satomi was inundating his nee-chan with rapid fire questions with stars in her eyes.

In class Haku was ranked third in academics and ninth in taijutsu classes. He had been worried that Misaki-nee would be disappointed that he wasn't the top of his class like she had been but she had been happy for him and congratulated him for doing well. When he asked if she was disappointed that he hadn't tested into a higher level like she had, Misaki-nee had given him a soft smile before saying that she was glad that he didn't skip any years.

Misaki-nee explained that the final deciding factor for her not taking their savior's offer in Suzu was that she wanted him to have the happiest childhood that he could. Once he became a full-fledged shinobi that would start the end of his childhood so Misaki-nee was happy that he hadn't skipped ahead like she had. She then told him that she had begun training and studying much earlier than Haku so he should just do his best and not try to gauge how well he was doing based on what she had done. To Misaki-nee, as long as he tried his best that would make her happy.

Hearing those words from her had made him really happy and less intimidated the various stares at the academy of people expecting him to be a genius prodigy like his nee-chan. As long as Misaki-nee was proud of him, he didn't care what other people thought.

So far he had only had one incident at the academy. A third year girl named Matsumoto Kaori had come up to him with two of her friends before class and tried to bully him.

She had said all kinds of awful things about how he was talentless and started to disparage his nee-chan. Haku didn't care about what she said about him because he knew it wasn't true but hearing Kaori try to say bad things about his sister made him really mad. He had been about to tell Kaori off when another third year stepped in. Kaori and her friends had simpered and blushed at his presence as he told them to leave and to leave Haku alone in the future.

The third year who introduced himself as Uchiha Ren had told Haku to ignore Kaori as Misaki-nee had kicked her butt in a spar on the first day of class and Kaori had never forgiven her for it. Before leaving for his own class, Ren had told Haku that if Kaori or her minions ever bothered him again to tell Ren about it. After Ren chased them off, they had yet to bother Haku again.

As they reached the gate of the academy, Haku wished Misaki-nee good luck on her mission and gave her a long hug before entering the academy grounds.

After dropping Haku off at the Academy, Misaki let the easygoing smile slide off of her face. Today was the first mission that she would be taking without any members of her genin team. It was a B-rank infiltration mission in the Yama country between Waterfall country and Rice country. It was a sparsely populated country that was aptly named as the entire region was very mountainous. Despite the country size being large, most of the land was uninhabitable.

The country didn't have a hidden village or even a daimyo. There were several large cities that were maybe a quarter or half of the size of Gamatori but mostly there were medium sized or small sized villages dotting the countryside. One of the larger cities had hired a shinobi team to stop the rash of abductions happening from orphanages across the country.

Konoha had original sent a team of chunin to find the culprits but the chunins had been unable to find the culprits. They didn't know who was abducting children but as they hadn't been unable to find the culprits nor the children but the team recognized the signs that pointed to the culprit or culprits being skilled shinobi. The mission wasn't a total failure though because the chunin had been able to discover a pattern to the abductions.

The chunin had been able to narrow the pattern of abductions down and pinpoint the next likely target. The culprits struck every two to three weeks and they also chose larger orphanages with more kids so the orphanage workers would be less likely to notice their absence or take longer to. They tended to take newer kids or loners. There were several orphanages that fit that criteria but only one of them was not in the three large cities. So far the culprits had not struck any of the orphanages in large cities so their team was being sent to a town called Aka.

The entire time the chunins had been in Mountain country the culprits had not struck. So Konoha had recalled the team of chunin and were now sending Misaki and her teammates to handle the problem. Their mission was to infiltrate Mountain country and station themselves at the next possible abduction site.

Misaki's team was a four man team consisting of Misaki, Shisui, Santa, and a kunoichi named Sato Anri. It was the first time in Misaki's mission history that a mission she was on required the strength of two jonin. It was also the first time the team she was on would be splitting up. They would split into three groups before even crossing the border into Mountain country.

Santa and Anri would be posing as a couple honeymooning in Mountain while Misaki and Shisui would split up and arrive at the orphanage at separate dates. They would be posing as orphaned children living at the next target. Shisui would arrive first, followed by Misaki, then Santa and Anri. Misaki knew Shisui reasonably well as he was Itachi's cousin and other best friend but it was her first time doing a mission with him.

As the culprits had avoided abducting children while the other Konoha chunin were searching for them, Santa and Anri would be "sightseeing" around town. This was the first infiltration mission that Misaki had undertaken where there was the known threat of shinobis. Despite knowing that Shisui was extremely skilled, it made Misaki slightly nervous to know that their backup wouldn't be right there with them and would take time to reach them if they needed them.

What also was not helping was the fact that she knew if Konoha could've helped it, they wouldn't have sent Misaki on a mission like this. They didn't know if the hostiles were killing kids or just abducting them. They didn't know how many hostiles there were or how skilled they were. This mission could easily jump up to an A-rank.

The mission information had been upfront about all those facts. Unfortunately as they were targeting kids and would be spooked by unknown adults loitering around the target orphanage, Konoha had no choice. Of the people within the age range to not arouse suspicion at the orphanage, the skill to fly under the culprit shinobis' radar, and ability to successful complete the mission with no fatalities Shisui and Misaki were the best choices.

Santa assured her that she was one of the most talented infiltration pupils he had ever had the pleasure of teaching and that she would be fine as long as she stayed on guard. She knew that Shisui was a skilled infiltrator and very skilled shinobi. So was their fourth teammate Anri. She was a skilled frontal assault combat jonin that had been trained in the art of infiltration.

The aforementioned things had helped settle her nerves but didn't diminish them completely. Missions like this generally required experienced infiltrators and Misaki had only gone on three infiltration missions before. This would be her fourth.

She knew she was a very strong chunin possibly bordering jonin level and could take on other chunin and possibly some weak jonin but she would only be able to take a jonin in a one on one fight. The culprit or culprits had been skilled enough to avoid detection of the first chunins that had been assigned the mission. If there were multiple jonin level opponents even going all out and using everything in their repertoire it would be a tough fight for Shisui and Misaki. In dire straits, the few minutes their teammates took to reach them could be the difference between life and death.

As they neared the border of mountain country, Misaki focused on pushing down the remnants of nervousness. She was strong. She could do this. She had to do this. Misaki refused to leave Haku alone in this world.

"Don't be nervous. Just stay focused and you'll be fine. Santa is one of the best infiltration experts out there and he trained you excellently. Besides I'll be there too to watch your back." Shisui whispered reassuringly before giving her a one-armed hug and splitting off.

Santa gave Misaki a reassuring nod before he and Anri also split off. They would be honeymooning and sightseeing through another city first to help establish their cover. Alone for the first time ever on a mission, Misaki got rid of the last vestiges of nervousness. She set up camp complete with a barrier seal and when evening came she went to sleep.

The next morning she changed into the worn civilian outfit complete with threadbare shoes that she had been given, sealed or hid away her weapons, slid into the cover persona she had made, and crossed through the border into Mountain country.

The trek to Aka, the village where they suspected the culprit would strike next, was a long and tedious walk. Had Misaki been able to use her shinobi speed, it would've been completed in an hour or two. As she had to make the trek at the speed of a civilian, it took until nightfall for her to reach the orphanage.

Inside the orphanage, she spotted Shisui but made no attempt to approach him or any indication that she even knew him. For all that they knew the culprit was already doing recon on the orphanage. While they were young, two random orphans arriving within a day of each other knowing each other would too much of a coincidence for a skilled shinobi.

So she focused on keeping her senses peeled for any hints of chakra or flares of chakra and establishing herself as a sweet but shy kid. Prior to splitting up, they had established that Shisui would play the role of antisocial loner and she would play that of a shy kid.

As he was an older orphan being a jaded loner would be more believable than a sweet kid. They didn't know if the shinobi targeting the orphans selected them based on how easy it would be to grab them or certain characteristics. Based on the orphans they had taken before it seemed random.

The time at the orphanage was exceedingly boring for both Shisui and Misaki. A few days passed, then a week, and another week. Misaki was beginning to wonder if the appearance of the Konoha chunin a few weeks back had spooked the culprits from attempting to kidnap another orphan when she felt Shisui flare his chakra. Running full speed to the location of the flare, she found Shisui engaged in a fight with three shinobi.

Misaki flared her chakra as well to help alert their teammates as she engaged in the fight. Seeing Misaki enter the fight, Shisui felt a swell of relief. He was faster than the shinobis and could defeat any of them in a one on one battle but they were three of them and they were strong. At least one of them was definitely jonin level.

From fighting alongside Itachi for so long, she and Shisui had excellent coordination together as they engaged their opponents in a rapid taijutsu battle. Seeing him throw fire release great fireball at the shortest opponent, Misaki rapidly churns out a wind release great breakthrough to augment his fireball.

All three opponents dodge the giant fireball but one of them got cut by one of the shuriken Shisui had thrown after the fireball. The shinobi that got cut scowled nastily at Shisui before throwing out a wind release blade of wind that Shisui dodged. They engage in another bout of taijutsu where Misaki and Shisui manage to land several blows on their slower opponents.

Shisui trapped their opponents in powerful genjutsus as Misaki continued to shoot water jutsus at them forcing them on the defensive. They were able to dispel Shisui's genjutsus but not in time to dodge most of Misaki's water jutsus.

By the speed they dispelled Shisui's genjutsus and recovered from Misaki's water jutsus, Misaki had realized that their opponents were one jonin level shinobi, one borderline jonin, and one strong chunin. She knew that she would need to go all out. Something or someone must be delaying Santa and Anri as they should have already felt the chakra flare and made it here.

Unfurling several scrolls, she unseals them at the same time releasing a torrent of water into the clearing. She raised several ice mirrors in the clearing in case she needed them before launching several spears of ice at their opponents. At the sight of her ice usage, all three shinobis' eyes begin to gleam weirdly. Bothered but needing to focus on the fight, Misaki ignored the sheen in their eyes. As one of them dodged a spear, Shisui appeared at the spot he landed and stabbed him in the abdomen with his tanto.

Pissed at being stabbed by Shisui the shinobi yelled, "Fuck this, you bastards are pissing me off!" After his shout, his chakra levels exploded as black inky marks began to spread all over his skin and he disappeared in a blur only to reappear and almost punch Misaki in the face. Despite the power increase, she still was faster and managed to shunshin out of the way. Seeing her dodge his hit, enraged him and his skin turned dark-grey and his chakra levels exploded a second time.

One of the other shinobi's chakra levels also exponentially increased twice as black inky marks spread all over his skin and his skin also changed colors. Feeling the explosion of chakra from the first two shinobi Misaki and Shisui exchanged grim looks. Before the third was able to do whatever it was his partners did, Shisui trapped him in a complex genjutsu which Misaki followed up by freezing his lower body and hands. This gave Shisui the opportunity to decapitate the enemy shinobi.

Where before Shisui and Misaki were faster than their opponents, Misaki was now slightly slower than them which was not a good thing seeing as when Misaki dodged one of their punches, it ended up shattering the tree behind her.

Like Misaki and Shisui the two remaining shinobi were also a deadly fire and wind combination. They fired combination attack after combination attack trying to catch either Shisui or Misaki in their deadly infernos. They were throwing out chakra intensive jutsus without it seeming to drain their chakra at all. It was like they had a never-ending supply of chakra. When they weren't firing jutsus at them, they were swiftly attacking them with brutal punches and kicks.

Misaki had thought she was fast but witnessing Shisui's speed was unreal. Even after they increased their speed exponentially twice, he was still faster than them. That combined with his sharingan predictive abilities and shunshin, he was able to avoid getting hit by any of their taijutsu or ninjutsu attacks. Misaki on the other hand needed to use a combination of shunshins, water jutsus, dodging, going into her various ice mirrors strewn across the clearing, and blocking when she couldn't do anything else to escape unscathed.

She slid into an ice mirror to avoid another enraged taijutsu attack before sliding back out and using water release exploding water shockwave which threw the wounded shinobi away from her and through several trees. When he immediately stands up mostly uninjured from her attack and launched himself at her again, Misaki cursed inwardly as she shunshined out the way of the wind jutsu he sent in retaliation. What the hell was this guy made of? Fucking concrete?

Seeing him brush off her strong b-rank water jutsu like it tickled him, Misaki knew that she would need to stick to her kekkei genkai or wind jutsu to even stand a chance of wounding them. Although Santa and Anri were definitely engaged in combat somewhere as it had been over fifteen minutes since they first engaged the shinobis in a fight, Misaki didn't have the time to worry about them.

If she slipped up or didn't focus on the battle, she could easily be seriously injured if not killed by these shinobis. Their speed, strength, and chakra reserves had increased exponentially by whatever jutsu they used twice that caused black marks to spread across their body and then their skin to change color.

Misaki and Shisui exchanged glances as they dodged another fiery inferno. They both knew they had to stop being on the defensive and go on the offensive. At first they had been trying to subdue the enemy shinobi to question them but they had to start aiming to kill.

With their seemingly never-ending chakra supply, Misaki and Shisui would both run out of chakra before their enemies did if they continued to try to subdue them. When that happened it would be game over. As Anri and Santa were most likely fighting a similar opponent or opponents, they couldn't rely on them to be able to assist them. For all they knew, Anri and Santa might need their assistance.

Unsealing several more scrolls of water, she used some of the water surrounding her to create a fluid ice dragon to attack their opponents with. As they dodged, Shisui used fire release fire dragon flame bullet shooting an enormous ball of flame shaped like a dragon from his mouth. The opponent that Shisui stabbed and Misaki had thrown through the trees dodged Shisui's fire jutsu only to be slammed into the ground by Misaki's ice dragon and simultaneously be impaled by several spikes of ice that Misaki created underneath him.

Even after being slammed to the ground with the force of her ice dragon and impaled by several ice spikes the freaking juggernaut was still struggling to move. Misaki shunshined to him and slit his throat finally stopping him in his tracks before turning towards the other shinobi.

Seeing his both of his teammates killed, the other shinobi attempted to flee but was stopped in his tracks by Shisui's fire release great fireball. He realized he would not be able to outrun Shisui so he turned back and reengaged them in battle.

Now that there were two of them and only he was left, it was obvious to Shisui, Misaki, and their opponent that he would be unable to defeat them. They could now aim to capture instead of kill so they could interrogate their opponent.

Whatever jutsu was causing his skin to be a different color and those black marks was still protecting him from falling under any of Shisui's genjutsu. Using non-lethal attacks to attempt to subdue the enemy shinobi was not as hard as it had been to kill his partners but it still wasn't easy. Seeing his partner killed had sent him into a frenzied panic to escape from Shisui and Misaki which thankfully made it easier to capture him.

They wore him down through a combination of Misaki's ice dragon, taijutsu, projectile weapons, and ninjutsu. As he was starting to slow, Misaki signaled to Shisui before tossing him a scroll. Shisui used his superior speed to get right next to the frazzled enemy shinobi and unsealed it on him.

The water from the scroll gushed out onto him and Misaki instantly froze him in his tracks leaving only his head unfrozen. The shinobi released a hysterical laugh for a second before biting down on something before either of them could react. He killed himself instantly with some kind of poison capsule in his mouth just as an exhausted Anri and pale Santa entered the clearing.

Tired, Misaki plopped down onto the ground as Shisui briefed Anri and Santa on what had happened.

"Sorry we took so long. We were stopped by a shinobi that also underwent the same transformations. We came here as soon as we killed him. I know you're winded but you need to get up Misaki. We need to report our mission as completed and get back to Konoha immediately." Santa said after Shisui finished briefing them.

"But how do we know if we completed our mission? We still don't know if these were the only shinobi kidnapping orphans." Misaki asked.

"I invaded our opponent's mind while we were fighting him in an attempt to subdue him. Once I realized who he worked for, it became a priority to get whatever information we could from him. But he managed to transform like your opponents had and kick me out of his mind. But not before I managed to see that these four were the only shinobi kidnapping orphans though. We've completed our mission and need to head for Konoha asap. These shinobi were working for the most dangerous missing ninja Konoha has ever produced, a missing nin called Orochimaru."

Misaki blanched at the name and immediately stood up. Jiraiya had briefly told her a little bit about his old teammate and anything involving him was bad news. According to Jiraiya, Orochimaru was on par with his strength. The brief time she had felt the full force of Jiraiya's chakra his strength was quite intimidating. He had told her that if she ever ran into someone that looked like him or was named Orochimaru to run like hell and not turn back.

Not only was Orochimaru insanely powerful but he was obsessed with kekkei genkai and as Misaki was one of the last remaining ice release kekkei genkai users he would love to get his hands on her. Misaki couldn't stop her shudder as she realized that explained the weird gleam in the three shinobis' eyes when they saw her use her kekkei genkai. From what Jiraiya had told her, she was better off dead than the prolonged and excruciating suffering she would experience in the hands of Orochimaru's and his mad scientist-like experiments.

They sealed both of their opponents' bodies into scrolls and took off for the city they received their mission from. After Santa informed the client that the kidnappers had been killed, they took off at a brutal pace towards Konoha.

Upon reaching Konoha, they bypassed the waiting shinobi and went directly into the Hokage's office where Santa briefed the Hokage on the details of their mission. The Hokage informed them that the mission was bumped up to an A-rank mission and everything pertaining to it was now considered classified. He congratulated them on a job well done before dismissing them and giving them the next two days off to recuperate.

After the debriefing it was still early enough to pick up Haku from Tsume's house as it was only 9pm but Misaki was so exhausted that she decided she would pick him up tomorrow morning. She was so drained from the challenging fight and the punishing pace they utilized to get to Konoha that she barely made it home to their apartment. She went straight home, collapsed in her bed, and went to sleep without even eating or showering.

When she woke up the next day it was in the middle of the morning. She was so exhausted that she had slept for a little over thirteen hours. She didn't know how Shisui felt after their battle against the three enemy shinobi yesterday, but she definitely felt like she had been run over by the Knight Bus and she felt disgustingly unclean from all the grime she had accrued during the fight and their trek back to Konoha.

Her muscles were sore and her chakra levels were still fairly low. The glancing hits and hits from those shinobi she had been forced to block were the hardest hits she had ever felt. Even blocking a hit from them had forced her back a few paces. During the fight she had been forced to use many water jutsus to protect herself and Shisui at times. She wasn't close to chakra exhaustion but her chakra levels were lower than they had ever been before.

As it was 11 o'clock and Haku would be at the academy, Misaki ate a ration bar and she showered before she ran herself a steaming hot bath with a few drops of lavender essential oil to help soothe her sore muscles. She would've liked to eat something other than that but as no one had been in the apartment for two weeks there were no groceries.

Besides right now washing the mission grime and blood off of her body took priority. She would definitely be throwing away the sheets she slept on last night. While she relaxed in her bath, she thought about what Shisui had said when they were leaving the Hokage's office. Shisui had commented that was the most difficult mission he had ever had and she had agreed with his statement.

Misaki was glad that Shisui had been her partner for that mission. Had either of them been less skilled or slower, they both might not have survived. That was the closest to serious injury or death that she had come. Thankfully they worked well together and both had quick reactions. They had seen the transformation the first two ninjas had undergone and the subsequent increases in power and immediately worked together to take out the remaining ninja before he could do the same.

Idly, as she relaxed in her bath she wondered why Shisui hadn't taken the jonin exams. From what she saw during their fight yesterday he definitely was capable of becoming a jonin. Itachi had been right about Shisui being stronger than him.

When the water became lukewarm, Misaki drained the bath and dried up. As she was debating on where to get some actual food from, there was a knock on the door.

Misaki opened the door to come face to face with Shisui's face and the aroma of food.

"Has anyone ever told you that you're amazing?" Misaki jokingly said as she stepped aside to let him inside the apartment.

"Hmm… amazing? All the time. Keep it up and I might continue to bring you food after our joint missions. Ohhh please do it front of Itachi. I'll bring you some of Mikoto-oba's famous cookies if you do." Shisui replied with a smirk on his face. "He's quite fun to rile up and quite protective over his friends. I can just imagine his expression at the thought of you liking me. For some reason he's come to the conclusion that I'm an incorrigible flirt."

"For some reason…? Sure you don't you mean all the girls you flirt with?" Misaki queried before deadpanning, "I can just ask Mikoto-obasan to make me some cookies rather than getting them second hand from you. Besides I don't want anyone to think I have that bad taste in guys."

"Aw, Misaki-chan I didn't know you noticed. Are you jealous? Don't worry your baking skills, cooking skills, and sterling personality has a special place in my heart!" Shisui exclaimed before giving Misaki a wink and waggling his eyebrows at her. "Please, if people thought you liked me it would be obvious to everyone what excellent taste you have."

Misaki gave Shisui a dry look. "I can think of a few people off the top of my head that would disagree."

Shisui shot Misaki an affronted look. "Itachi, Shogo, and Taro don't count. The thought of you liking anyone would be disagreeable to them. I'll have you know I happen to be an awesome catch."

Misaki rolled her eyes at Shisui's comment as she placed the takeout boxes on the dining room table.

"You know… I came here wanting to bring sustenance to my wonderful teammate but now-"At the expression on Misaki's face he stopped and pouted. "I was just teasing, no need to look at me like that."

As they continue to lightheartedly banter and eat, Misaki felt the tension lingering from their mission yesterday that had not been eased by her bath disappear. Shisui always knew how to lighten the mood and ease people's stress. She was lucky to have him as a friend. When they finished eating and Shisui was getting ready to leave Misaki gave him a hug. "Thanks I needed that."

Shisui hugged her back for a few seconds before responding anytime and leaving. As she put their glasses in the sink, Misaki mused that Shisui's joking comment earlier was right once she got over the initial repugnance of gauging a thirteen year old in terms of how they would be to date. At thirteen he was still a kid to her. He was a great friend and would be a great catch for whoever caught his eye in the future. Not for her as she wasn't planning on dating for a long time but someone else.

A few hours after Shisui had left Misaki's apartment, Haku strolled out of the academy animatedly chatting with Haruhito and Satomi. It had been over two weeks since Misaki-nee left so she would probably be gone for a couple more days. He really liked tsume-obasan, hana-neechan, kiba-kun, and their dogs but he missed Misaki-neechan a lot. She had never been gone for longer than a week before. As he was about to exit the gate of the academy, he heard a pointed cough. Glancing towards the sound, Haku spotted Misaki-neechan sitting on the wall surrounding the academy.

"Nee-chan you're back!" Haku said as Misaki jumped down and gave him a crushing hug. Noticing the two boxes on the wall Haku asked, "What are those for?"

"I baked a cake and cooked some of Tsume-oba's favorite dishes as a thank you for taking care of you while I was gone." Misaki responded as they made their way to Tsume's compound.

When they got to Tsume's house, Tsume's eyes lit up at the smell of food emanating from the boxes Misaki was carrying before inviting them in. As they sat and chatted while they waited for Hana to return from the academy, Misaki realized it had been a while since she had been able to spend time hanging out with Tsume, Hana, and Kiba together. She had been so busy with missions that she hadn't realized quite how much time had passed since the last time until now. She saw Tsume from time to time and even ran a mission or two with her and she hung out with Hana when they were both free but it had been a long time since she hung out with Haku, Kiba, Tsume, and Hana.

As they enjoyed the food Misaki had made earlier in the afternoon and listened to Hana's and Haku's anecdotes about the academy, Misaki resolved to try to spend more time with them. It would only get more difficult for them to all be free at the same time once Hana, Haku, and Kiba graduated.

During the short time they had lived in Konoha, the Inuzukas had become like family. Kiba and Haku were best friends despite the two year age difference and without Tsume's help Misaki didn't even know what she would do when she had to leave for long missions.

Haku was a smart and capable boy but it brought her solace during the mission knowing that he wasn't alone while she was gone. From her past life's childhood, she knew that coming home to an empty home could be unpleasant especially when it was day after day.

While she had been gone on that mission in Mountain country, Haku's first term of the academy had ended and he was on summer break. She had to resume doing missions after her two days off but she tried to use the majority of her free time she had to train Haku.

He did a daily regime of physical conditioning exercises she had assigned him and was mostly working on his chakra control still but Misaki wanted to continue teaching him more katas while he had free time during the summer. When they weren't training they spent time with the Inuzukas or their respective friends.

As summer drew to a close and Haku's fall term to the academy began, he had made leaps and bounds in his progress with chakra control. Where it had taken Misaki a full year and a half to have enough chakra control to learn the tree walking exercise, Haku would be able to learn it after year. By her estimates he would have enough chakra control to learn it by this winter and if not by spring at the latest.

Haku was not the only one who had made leaps and bounds in his training. In her pursuit of learning the mystical palm jutsu, her chakra control had become very precise. In the nine months since the chunin exams Misaki had grown very proficient at the mystical palm medical ninjutsu. The mystical palm jutsu enabled Misaki to speed up the body's natural healing process via chakra. She would be able to heal a teammate without requiring medical equipment or to perform surgery. It was the most widely used medical technique.

If she wanted to learn more medical ninjutsu after the mystical palm jutsu she would need to get an apprenticeship at the hospital and have medical ninjutsu as her primary focus. To become a fully-fledged medical-nin was a very time consuming path. Natsumi had chosen to go down that route and they rarely saw her between her internship at the hospital and all the studying she had to do.

Misaki didn't plan on becoming a medical-nin so with the mastery of mystical palm jutsu she returned her focus to fuinjutsu. She hadn't completely neglected it while learning mystical palm jutsu but she had spent the majority of training time she had focusing on learning the medical jutsu. It had also been easier to practice the mystical palm jutsu as opposed to completely focusing on whichever seal she was experimenting on while she was overseeing Haku's training. They both took concentration but seals required one hundred percent of a person's concentration. A slight mistake in composing certain seals could cause the entire seal to blow up.

By the time Misaki's eleventh birthday rolled around on November 18th, she had mastered the privacy seal she found in jiraiya's fuinjutsu notebook, created her own variation of a paralysis seal, and had begun making serious headway on learning how to apply touch seals.

During the daytime of her birthday, team 6 had gone out to lunch with Choza-sensei to celebrate. Afterwards Misaki celebrated her eleventh birthday with Haku, her friends, and the Inuzukas. Tsume had decided to throw Misaki a party for her eleventh birthday.

This time Shogo was in town for his teammate's birthday but Taro, Daiki, and Taka were gone on missions. So it was just Shogo, Itachi, Natsumi, Haku, Shisui, Kiba, Hana, and Tsume at the party. Though she was sad that Taro was out of town for her birthday as he had been at every birthday she had since coming to Konoha, she was happy that both of her teammates were able to be there.

As Misaki sat with her teammates on Tsume's porch affectionately watching the rest of them tussling with various Inuzuka dogs, she couldn't believe how fast the time had passed since they moved to Konoha. The four years that they had been in Konoha had passed in the blink of an eye. In a few months it would be Haku's eighth birthday.

Haku's eighth birthday was a happy affair. He invited his civilian friends, his new academy friends, as well as Kiba and Hana. During the afternoon they played outside in the snow, made snowmen, and engaged in snowball fights before trooping indoors to Misaki and Haku's apartment. Misaki had baked him his favorite cake, chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, and had cooked a bunch of delicious food for them to enjoy.

As they chowed down on food and cake as Misaki watched Haku interact with his friends, she smiled at the realization of how much Haku had grown. He was no longer the little grieving child who would crawl into her bed when he had a nightmare. Haku still crawled into her bed when he had a nightmare but he was no longer grieving and not quite so little. He was now a kind and cheerful academy student with tons of friends who was on his way to becoming a ninja. Only time would tell if Haku becoming a ninja was a good thing or not but for now he seemed happy and that was enough for Misaki.


	15. And So It Begins

A/N: To Shadow of God, no worries I'm just happy that people like my story enough to write reviews or multiple reviews as in your case :) I was thinking of leaving it ambiguous about whether Luna survived after Draco saved her but ultimately I decided to write in how Draco saw that the Aurors had subdued the last wizard. I felt like that way Draco could take a little solace in the fact that his death wasn't in vain. I've been keeping it purposely ambiguous. Right now all of Misaki's peers still seem like kids to her and dating any of them or even considering any of them as dating prospects is going to disturb her. I did state in chapter one before the whole traumatizing first feeding that he was an equal opportunity lover in his past life. He wasn't gay in the canon but I changed him a little and made him bi with a predilection for women over men. I always kind of felt that he was slightly overly obsessed with Harry in the series and I could see his character being bi. I might make it that he was attracted to both genders but never acted on his attraction to the same gender when he was Draco. I haven't decided whether or not he will still be attracted to women or not. I haven't honestly decided. Either way he will probably struggle when he starts to form attraction to people or begins to date because of the age factor. I totally agree with you about canon Naruto. He is the child of two extremely powerful shinobi and like you said as Hokage he still needed the nine tails to have a semblance of real power. I can understand him being weak as a genin as he had little to no guidance and I could see angry academy teachers sabotaging his education and etc. But it bugged me that he had so much potential wasted. I thought after being taken on his training trip with Jiraiya he would come back a lot stronger than he did. He learned rasengan in such a short amount of time and then proceeded to use that one jutsu as his main attack for the rest of ever. In my story naruto's skills are definitely going to be more well-rounded or stronger than canon. I'm not going to make him super op where he just stomps over everyone but what I feel is reasonable given his fast tactile learning curve, near limitless chakra pools, his determination to get stronger, and cunning which probably can give you an idea of where I'm heading with Naruto. I agree that kishimoto definitely overly used his therapist ability but I can see how overflowing charisma like Naruto's could possibly affect certain people that were already predisposed a certain way before events affected and changed them (like Nagato) just not as ridiculously much as Kishimoto used it.

To Lady Kira, thanks for the review! I always kind of thought in the canon that the frog wallet that Naruto had was from Jiraiya. What were the chances that he randomly bought a frog wallet of all things? I can see Jiraiya leaving birthday presents as I'm assuming he did that in the canon but beyond that there won't be more interaction between Naruto and Jiraiya in my fic than there had been in the canon. Misaki meeting Jiraiya once didn't really do much to affect or change the person he is. He enjoyed catching up with Misaki/Draco but I don't see him primarily coming to town to visit her. Perhaps stopping by to see her if he's already there for some reason but he's busy with running his spy network and etc. As Itachi's teammate, Misaki had met Sasuke already but beyond meeting him she doesn't have any interaction with him. I might write a pov from Sasuke eventually of their meeting when he's older or something it's not something that Misaki would make a note of as he's so much younger. Like how Shogo, Taro, and Itachi have met Haku through when Misaki has Itachi birthday parties but they aren't necessarily close enough to Haku for them to be at Haku's birthday party. Shogo also has an older brother that I've mentioned once during the Tora incident and he doesn't really interact with Misaki and Itachi either. Orochimaru isn't going to directly target either of them as their kekkei genkai isn't something he would covet. If his ninja brought them to him on a platter I'm sure he'd try to discover everything about it but I don't see him trying to actively seek either of them out. If one of them pisses him off he might.

To lilnudger82, thanks for the review. I'm glad you enjoy reading :)

To the guest that reviewed, thanks! I don't think that Itachi got dragged into root from Anbu in the canon. I'm pretty sure he was part of regular anbu but had dealings with danzo due to the massacre but I could be wrong.

To mavow1, thanks for the review! It just might :P I added the difference between genin, chunin, and jonin into this chapter at least from what Misaki has seen or known.

To Shae Vizla, thanks for another review and I'm glad you enjoyed this chapter. I get what you're saying about since Misaki has a little brother she would understand how horrible it would be to lose a sibling but as you guessed she was a little overwhelmed. In the span two days, she found out that there was one other person who came from her old world too and had to dig up a lot of painful memories. After you mentioned Regulus in your other review, I decided to definitely put a little segment about him somewhere in the story, but it probably won't for a while. It's great to hear that you found the mission and combat scene interesting. Rest assured Misaki is well trained enough and wary enough of Orochimaru to not leave any evidence of her kekkei genkai behind.

To deathgeonous, thanks for the review. I'm glad the addition helped clear things up.

To sweetandsimple1, thanks for the review. It's great to hear that you enjoy every chapter :) Thanks! I felt like considering how the Sandaime didn't reveal either of naruto's parents to him for safety reasons that Jiraiya not taking care of him or meeting him until he was ninja was for safety reasons as well. As one of the most powerful ninja from Konoha and an active spymaster he seemed like he would have his plate full. Even in the canon when he takes Naruto on his training trip it seems like he still has to actively maintain his spy network. Glad to hear you like Haku's POVs i've been trying to make them more child-like sounding and cute as he's 8. I haven't decided what Misaki is going to be interested in. I'm leaning towards possibly both or maybe guys? Yeah it is three years in the canon but for my story I changed it to two. Sure, I'll add an omake like that to the end of this chapter for you :) Sorry to hear that you're facing writer block, after reading your review I went and read your Ino and Sai one shot and thought it was really funny and cute.

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 **Chapter 15: And So It Begins…**

The time after Haku's birthday passed by quickly and before Misaki knew it, four months had passed and she was taking Haku to his second entrance ceremony and dropping him of for his first day of his second year.

Since that mission in Mountain Country, Misaki thankfully had not had any more missions that dangerous or another a-rank mission. After proving her prowess in combat and infiltrations though and as Itachi had already proved his prowess in combat, they began being assigned more B-rank missions.

She also had been assigned a few more infiltration missions one of which she did with Itachi. As Misaki actually looked closer to ten possibly even nine and with her delicate looks, many people saw her outward appearance and immediately saw kid not ninja. It was surprising how many people would underestimate a charming, friendly young girl.

By the time he began his second year of the academy, Haku was currently third in academics in his class and now sixth in taijutsu. By how naturally fast both she and Haku were Misaki felt like their clan might have been genetically predisposed for sheer speed. The only peers of her that were able to match or beat her in speed were Itachi and Shisui. As she had never met any other Yuki clan members other than her mom who had been untrained, Misaki didn't know and unfortunately would probably not know unless either she or Haku decided to have kids in the future.

Mist had done a very thorough job of wiping the Yuki clan out. Misaki had been happy that she had yet to have to return to that accursed country for a mission. According to Choza-sensei as long as Mist was possibly purging native bloodlines like hers she most likely would not be sent on any missions in Water country, a fact that she was thankful for.

Haku had improved by quite a bit under Misaki's tutelage. She didn't have as much time to spend training him as she would have liked but she did what she could. Thankfully, he never complained about the exercises she had him do or wanted to skip the basics and just learn cool jutsus.

For Haku, Misaki-neechan was the best nee-chan ever and so if she said this was the best way for him to improve and train he believed her. He was a diligent pupil and he understood the importance of training. That didn't mean that he always trained during all his free time and never hung out with his friends. Misaki-cee told him it was important to strike a good balance between friends, school work, and training.

As Misaki, Haku, and Gai had grown close over the years, Gai had offered to oversee Haku's training when Misaki was gone for missions. It was cute to hear Haku chirp out yes Gai-sensei like she once had.

After Misaki had mastered the crane style the May after her chunin exams, Gai with tears of joy in his eyes at her achievement told her from that day forward he would no longer her sensei but now her sempai. His last advice to her as a sensei was once she was old enough around the age of thirteen that she should use weight training to increase her speed.

At first it felt really weird and disrespectful calling him sempai after calling him sensei for so long. But over time it got easier to the point that she automatically thought of him as Gai-sempai. Though he no longer taught her katas when they were both free they occasionally trained together and would sometimes spar.

He was still classes ahead of her in taijutsu but it was no longer the gap that there had been when she was a genin or even a new chunin. Although she was an extremely talented chunin with prodigal skill in the shinobi arts, she was still a very strong chunin or possibly weak jonin level where he was a very strong jonin. There existed a substantial skill gap between each rank.

An average genin starting out knew the three basic ninjutsu transformation, substitution, the clone jutsu, and maybe a few other e-rank jutsus depending on how diligent they were with training or how much outside assistance they had. The academy taught students with high enough chakra control one to two genjutsus but most of students didn't end up reaching that level of chakra control in the academy.

Many academy students were more interested in learning cool jutsu or cool tricks where they could see the immediate results of their training. The smarter ones and more patient ones realized that building strong foundations such as chakra control during the academy would benefit them more during the course of their ninja career than abandoning it after completing the exercises in class.

Most skilled shinobi had good to excellent chakra control and it took time and effort to gradually build better control. Better control meant less chakra wasted which correlated to lasting longer in fights or being able to use more jutsu. Practicing chakra control exercises also could boost chakra reserves.

In a fight where a person was evenly matched with their opponent having more chakra because of excellent control could make all the difference. Whether the prospective genin realized it or not, excellent chakra control would bolster their genjutsu, ninjutsu, and even taijutsu skills.

All academy students learned the standard Leaf taijutsu katas and everyone knew at least half of it and some were quite proficient with it when they graduated. Ones with outside assistance might be more advanced or know a different style entirely like a clan style. While those untalented in taijutsu or undiligent with their training might only have half the standard Leaf katas down. Genin could generally run up to the speeds of anywhere between 10 to 20 miles faster than the average civilian speed of 15 miles per hour.

As most shinobi fell into the category of chunin, there could be a wide discrepancy between one chunin to another. Chunin generally fell between the ranges of 30 to 90 miles per hour run speed. Most if not all couldn't sustain speeds of 90 miles per hours but quite a few could reach bursts of speed that fast and the fastest chunin were able to maintain speeds at the top of the range or faster and reach higher than 90 miles per hour during bursts of speed.

By the time ninjas become chunin they had mastered the standard leaf style of taijutsu or a style of taijutsu. Some that had only learned the standard leaf style as genin tried to find a more suitable style for themselves. As they passed more time as chunin ninjas they became more fluid, faster, and confident with their chosen taijutsu.

Chunin were also more advanced in the area of ninjutsu. A fledgling chunin should have been taught how to utilize elemental ninjutsu by their genin sensei and have added two to five elemental jutsus to their repertoire. More experienced or stronger chunins could fluctuate between having anywhere between eight to fifteen additional ninjutsus not counting the ones they learned as genin at their disposal. Most chunin had enough chakra control to cast basic genjutsu, some could cast advanced ones.

The biggest jump in power was between what differentiated a chunin from jonin. The average genin could possibly take down a weak to average chunin depending on the situation. The average chunin could definitely not take out a weak to average jonin. In fact three average chunin could probably not take out an average jonin.

All jonins could maintain speeds of at least 90 miles per hour with the top percentile capable of maintaining speeds up to 140 miles per hour or faster. A select few shinobi could even maintain speeds that greatly exceeded 140.

Aside from speed, most jonin had honed their taijutsu to the point it was efficient and deadly. Some jonin like Gai who was an extremely talented taijutsu master were able to solely defeat other jonin opponents with taijutsu and speed alone. Most jonin were able to cast standard c-rank or b-rank genjutsus and had a multitude of ninjutsu at their disposal.

During the past four months since Haku's birthday in January, Misaki had gotten closer to Shisui's speed. Shisui's own training had, of course, increased his speed as well. He still much faster than her but following the speed and endurance exercises given to her by Gai and steadily increasing said exercises for the past four years had definitely paid off. People could say whatever they wanted about Gai but one thing no one could say that his training didn't have results.

Itachi had reaped the benefits of Gai's intensive speed and endurance training as well. While he hadn't been doing the exercises as long as she had, he was only slightly slower than her. He had always been very fast even as an academy student. Like Misaki, Itachi had also continued improving his skill in all aspects of the Shinobi arts.

By her estimates from watching him fight enemies during their last mission, Itachi was comparable in skill to her if not slightly stronger. While Itachi was more skilled and the sharingan was ridiculously powerful, Misaki had much more chakra at her disposal and was faster which resulted in very interesting spars between the two of them especially when they let loose.

Misaki also had mastered the ability to use two different touch seals. She could apply two basic seals, paralysis and explosion seals, through touch. Her touch seals needed skin to skin combat so her skill in taijutsu and speed helped out a lot there. Misaki could apply the seals by any glancing blows or touches on any of their uncovered skin.

Her paralysis seal was a light paralysis as it was a fairly basic seal. All chunin and higher shinobi would be able to break through it but it could take them anywhere from several seconds to a split second. The frequency she could apply the paralysis seals and explosive seals combined with how little chakra they took made being within range of her taijutsu all the more deadly.

She could apply more chakra if she wanted to make the paralysis longer but it was a basic seal most skilled shinobi would be able to break through it eventually. Even if she pumped more chakra into her seal, shinobi with skill in chakra control would still be able to break through it in the same amount of time as if Misaki was using less chakra.

It was hard to gauge someone's chakra control in battle unless a person was a sensor so the chance of the paralysis lasting longer wasn't worth the additional output of chakra. Besides even a split second or two of paralysis would enable Misaki to possibly wound or disable her opponent.

She had also started to learn the art of breaking seals. She knew the theory behind how to pick apart seals; Jiraiya's second fuinjutsu notebook helped with that. She just had to learn how to skillfully unravel them. Each seal was different.

A week had passed after Haku's second year of the academy started when Misaki was sent a message to meet at the Hokage's office at eight pm. The message didn't say why nor mention a mission only when. Puzzled, Misaki tried to rack her brain for any reason the Hokage would summon her but she couldn't think of any. She hadn't done anything that would cause her to be suspended or anything that would merit a meeting with the Hokage.

When she arrived at the entrance to Hokage's office, the Sandaime gave her a genial nod and waved her in. Once she entered and shut the door, he activated an extremely complex privacy seal that lit up the ceiling of the office as it activated before disappearing. It was a massive seal, more complex than any seal Misaki had ever seen.

The Sandaime smiled at her awed expression. "Like it? It was the work of my successor. He was, as I'm sure you could tell from that brief glimpse, an extremely talented fuinjutsu prodigy. Now, for the reason I called you. I'm offering you the chance to join ANBU."

"Thank you for the honor, Hokage-sama but I do not have any desire to join ANBU." Misaki replied seriously. ANBU was a great honor but it was also very dangerous. Everyone knew that ANBU conducted the highest risk missions into other countries even enemy countries, carried out assassinations, and other dangerous missions. While Misaki was honored, she had Haku to think about. Being an ANBU would greatly increase the risks she faced on missions.

At her response, the Sandaime seemed to age a little. "I had an inkling that you would say that. What I'm about to hand to you to read is a S-rank secret. Speaking to anyone other than anyone I approve about it is treason and punishable by death. After reading it, hand me back the scroll."

Although she would rather pick up a live snake than that scroll even considering her slight snake phobia, the Hokage had not posed it as a suggestion. It was an order from her commander in chief. She grabbed the scroll and started reading the contents. Stunned by the contents, she lost all the color in her face. Before handing the scroll back to the Hokage she re-read the scroll a second time just to make sure she was actually reading what was written on the scroll. As soon as she handed the scroll back to the Hokage, he burned it with a small fire jutsu.

"I'm sorry to ask this of you, Misaki. But as you read the situation is dire. Your skills and talents make you well suited for what is needed. I want you to consider the information you just read before making your decision whether you will join ANBU or not. You have until three days from now to tell me your decision. It is your choice."

"I don't need three days. I accept." Misaki said keeping a lid on her anger and allowing none of it to slip out.

The Sandaime nodded in acceptance of her statement. "Thank you Misaki. You are dismissed. If you need to talk to me more about this simply inform my secretary you wish to meet with me. I have already told her that if you ask to speak with me to allow you in."

They talked for a few more minutes before Misaki bowed and left the Hokage's office. Seething, she made her way to the Naka River. Grabbing the shirt collar of the person she knew would be waiting there for her; she slammed him roughly into the thick bark of the redwood tree as she activated a complex privacy seal. During the short run from the Hokage's office, her smoldering anger had turned into cold fury.

"You really can be an asshole sometimes Itachi. For months… no almost a whole fucking year I asked you if things were okay. You assured me everything was fine and dandy with you. You can't confide in me, your teammate, but you can fucking force my hand. Don't even try to tell me that you didn't know when I read that scroll that I would accept." Misaki bit out with icy fury dripping off every word.

"I did know." Itachi replied stoically.

"You're not even sorry are you…" Misaki sneered.

"I'm not sorry that I put you in that position. I am sorry that it will endanger you."

"I know. I know you well enough to know that Sasuke, the village, and the clan are the utmost priority to you. You're still an asshole though." Misaki slammed him into the tree again for good measure. Him passively standing there allowing her to vent her fury on him just pissed her off more. It only illustrated that the asshole knew that his actions were extremely fucked up but chose to do it anyways. He had known that after reading the information on that scroll there was no way she wouldn't accept.

"I'm all Haku has. He's not like your brother who has you, his parents, and your clan. If something happens to me, Haku will be all alone in this world. This man that we will be trying to catch, things happen to people when they start looking into him. People disappear and are never heard from again. Most shinobi don't even know his organization exists. The only reason I know is that I mentioned he tried to recruit me when I was in the academy to someone who knew of him." At her mentioning his attempted recruitment of her Itachi slightly stiffened. "Don't get your boxers in a twist, if I was one of his I wouldn't be here telling you this."

"Aa, I know. I was just perturbed he tried to recruit you. I truly am sorry this is going to endanger you but I desperately need your help." Itachi said solemnly.

"I know, I read the information. As you know that's why I accepted the ANBU offer. But it doesn't change the fact that the Sandaime, himself, had commanded Danzo to shut down this organization a long time ago. From the time he had become aware that Danzo hadn't until now he hasn't been able to gather enough evidence to force Danzo's hand. Danzo has been able to circumvent one of the most powerful and intelligent shinobi alive for decades. We will be getting full ANBU training but still we've been alive for less than a fraction of the time he has been a shinobi."

"It's not just us. We will have several skilled jonin as well some very skilled ANBU members and the Hokage among other things." Itachi responded.

Misaki said, "I know but it's not like the Hokage didn't have skilled shinobi at his disposal before when he tried to find enough evidence to shut down this organization. I want you to swear on your- no I want you to swear on Sasuke's life. If anything happens to me, I want you to be there for Haku. I don't mean financially, I have that covered so he will never have to worry about that. I mean there for him emotionally like I would be there for him. Be there for his entrance ceremonies, graduations, birthdays, his first love and heartbreak. Basically treat him as you would Sasuke. If you can't, I won't do this. I want to help you, I really do. But as Sasuke, the clan, and the village are your priorities I have mine."

"I understand. I would do anything to protect Sasuke. I swear on Sasuke's life that should anything happen to you because of this I will be there for Haku as best as I can." Itachi vowed.

"Good. I'm still furious at you though so give me time to cool off." Misaki said before lifting the privacy seal and taking off not bothering to wait for a response.

Instead of heading home, Misaki headed to the hot springs. She needed to relax after those conversations with the Hokage and Itachi. As she felt some tension ease out of her, she thought about what had been on the scroll.

It had informed her that Danzo had been systematically alienating the Uchiha clan since the events of the Kyuubi attack. Itachi had brought it to the Hokage's attention the day they had returned from the Tatsuya mission. He told the Hokage the fact that they had not received any ANBU recruitment offers for qualified Uchiha shinobis since the Kyuubi attack and how he had begun to spot and sense ANBU patrolling around the Uchiha compound.

Since the Kyuubi attack no Uchiha had joined ANBU. Not because of lack of recruitment offers. Generally ANBU recruitment offers were delivered by other ANBU that had been delegated to deliver the messages. Danzo's root ANBU agents within ANBU had kept any recruitment offers from reaching the any of the Uchiha shinobi or kunoichi.

Each time an Uchiha "chose" not join ANBU, Danzo would whisper in the Hokage and the other advisors' ears how the Uchiha felt prioritized their clan over the village. How it was suspicious that after the Kyuubi attack the Uchiha no longer offered their strength to the village and how the Kyuubi could only be controlled by a sharingan user.

At the same time, the Uchiha got more and more infuriated by the slight of not being offered any spots in ANBU. As more years passed without any spots being offered the more convinced the clan became that the village was prejudiced towards them.

After several years of spots not being offered, to add insult to injury they began spotting the occasional ANBU member seemingly patrolling around their compound. The ANBU patrolling weren't actual ANBU. They were root ANBU members, ones that were purposely allowing their presence to be felt as they patrolled around the Uchiha compound.

The Hokage had stopped the "ANBU" from patrolling around the Uchiha clan by making a surprise visit to there. He had completely hidden his chakra and "noticed" several of them when he was at the Uchiha compound. By the time the Root ANBU agents noticed him it was too late and the damage had been done to their mission.

Itachi had reported since the Hokage's visit a year ago that no more "ANBU" had patrolled around the Uchiha clan compound. Danzo wasn't stupid enough to have them ever patrol there again. Seeing Root agents once could be a coincidence, more than once was a pattern. Danzo didn't know that the Hokage already knew and couldn't take the risk of alerting him to his plan.

After being alerted by Itachi, the Hokage and the other shinobi involved had also discovered that Danzo through bribery and blackmail had been using vendors to alienate the Uchiha more. Certain vendors had begun to charge the Uchiha slightly more for their goods in the years following the Kyuubi attack.

The Hokage had always wondered how it got out that the sharingan was capable of controlling the Kyuubi to the general shinobi populace as it was a fact that had been forgotten and now he had a pretty good idea of who was the culprit. According to the scroll, the only thing the Hokage didn't know was why Danzo was so set on alienating the Uchiha. Either way his actions were treasonous and he needed to be stopped.

After Misaki had finished reading the scroll in the office, the Hokage had told her after discovering that ANBU had been compromised by Root agents that he decided to start a separate task force focused on collecting evidence of Danzo's wrongdoings and keeping an eye out for root agents. The Hokage needed ninja he could trust. He didn't know which of his ANBU had been compromised and Itachi had suggested her as a trustworthy and skilled option. The Hokage agreed as her skills in fuinjutsu, reading people, medical ninjutsu, and overall skill level would assist greatly.

The intensive four month training period that all ANBU underwent would help prepare her whatever the task force asked of her. Being in ANBU would give her a greater freedom of movement than chunins or even jonins had. The village elders kept track of most if not all missions that chunins and jonins were sent out on. ANBU was under the Hokage's direct command and only he knew what missions they were being sent out on unless he chose to share.

She would only know the identity of a few of the people working on this for safety reasons. She knew that the Hokage, Itachi, and her eventual ANBU squad teammates would be involved. She also was told Yamanaka Inoichi and Nara Shikaku would be working on it. As clan heads of two important and powerful clans, they were politically connected enough that even if Danzo discovered what they were doing, he couldn't do anything in retaliation to them.

Even though she was joining ANBU because of the issues with Danzo and the task force, she would not be exempt from actually being a part of actual ANBU. She would be a legitimate ANBU member and be expected to run missions.

As Misaki relaxed in the hot springs, Itachi jumped to the top of the redwood tree and sat down at the spot that had become theirs over the years. After the Tatsuya mission and the subsequent conversation with Misaki he had had at this very spot, he had gone straight to the Hokage.

He told the Hokage of the stirring unrest among the Uchiha clan and the whispers of a coup d'etat. Itachi had not wanted the Hokage to think he was questioning his authority or justifying his clan's actions, so he wasn't going to mention the ANBU patrolling around the Uchiha clan or the lack of ANBU offers to highly qualified clan members. Despite it causing a lot of resentment in the clan, what the Hokage chose to do was not his business. But he had remembered Misaki's advice that telling the whole truth and situation might result in the best chance of everything being resolved. So he told the Hokage everything.

Her advice turned out to be right and he was glad he followed it. The Hokage had no idea that the Uchiha had no received any ANBU offers as he was under the impression that clan members had been turning down the multiple offers over the years. He also had not ever assigned any ANBU to patrol around the clan compound. Troubled, the Hokage had thanked Itachi for being an excellent and loyal leaf shinobi before dismissing him after telling Itachi that he would handle it. If he required further assistance from Itachi, he said he would ask.

A year had passed before the Hokage offered him a position in ANBU and the chance to help. He accepted and when asked about other possible ninja he offered up Misaki's name despite knowing how she'd feel about the matter. He knew that she would help him despite the risks. Though it endangered her, involving her would result in the best possible outcome for Sasuke, the village, and the clan.

Though she was only an intermediate seal user, she had shown an incredible aptitude and brilliance regarding seals. Aside from her fuinjutsu skills, her medical skills and overall skills would also be useful. Itachi felt reassured by the fact that he had the help of the two very skilled individuals closest to him. Two people whose skills and talents would be able to help resolve the situation. There was only one other person he could completely trust to have his back and that person was helping as well. But that wasn't surprising as it was also the other person's clan after all.

As he continued to look over Konoha, he knew Misaki wouldn't have cooled down before the start of ANBU training in three days and was not looking forward to that especially if they had to spar. Misaki could be quite vengeful when angered.

While Itachi continued to look out over Konoha from their spot, Misaki exited the hot spring and went home. As she got ready to sleep in her apartment she thought about how extremely furious Itachi's actions had made her especially at finding out that the Hokage offered to let him break the news of what was going on to her. It pissed her off that he had the option of breaking the news to her but chose not to. The least he could've done was told her himself.

She could understand why he suggested her. His trust in her and her skills would've been heartwarming if Misaki wasn't so incredibly angry at him. Even after relaxing at the hot springs, her fury hadn't dissipated at all. Understanding why he suggested her didn't change the fact that he knew that suggesting her was dangerous and could leave Haku all alone in this world.

She was all Haku had; his sole caretaker and the last of his family. Hell, if Danzo ever discovered her involvement it could put Haku in the crosshairs. The Hokage had promised to protect Haku but Danzo was a powerful and wily foe.

She didn't even want to be around Itachi right now but with ANBU training starting in three days she had no choice. They were both joining ANBU so whether she liked it or not she would be seeing a lot of him.

Misaki explained to Haku that for the upcoming months she would be really busy with training and spent the next three days spending as much time as possible with Haku. After she had accepted, the Hokage given her the next three days off and informed Misaki that ANBU training would be taking up most of her time in the coming four months. During the ANBU training periods, recruits did not even go on missions for the village unless their specific skills were needed and there were no other alternatives.

For four months they would be training from sunup to sundown or later Mondays through Saturdays with two days, Thursdays and Sundays, off to recuperate. It would be intensive physical and mental exercises and training to improve their skills and test their fortitude to ensure they were ready for what ANBU needed from them. They would be trained to meet the rigorous standards that ANBU required of its operatives.

In the early am of the morning on the day of her first day of ANBU training, Misaki felt dread when she thought of the next four months. Sure Misaki was excited to see how much she could improve from their rigorous training methods but she was not looking forward to what sounded like it would be four months of hellish training.

Still she already agreed to it so she sucked it up and went to the location the Hokage had directed her to go to at 8. When she arrived at the location, she was surprised to see she was at a small clothing boutique in northwest quadrant of the business district in Konoha.

Entering the business, the proprietor had ushered her to the back room and handed her a blank mask, a set of black clothing complete with black gloves and black calf-high ninja sandals, a grey flak jacket, three ninja pouches for her back-waist, and metal arm guards to change into.

Misaki was then told to make some kind of clone to walk back out the front door and leave the area before changing. After Misaki changed, the proprietor, who Misaki had assumed was a kunoichi even though she hadn't see any signs of it until she had done the hand seals for a privacy jutsu earlier told her to go straight to the tower of the forest of death.

Upon reaching the tower in the center of the forest of death, she joined the rows of recruits standing at attention and faced the ANBU member standing a few paces away facing of them. Even though Misaki had grown and was now 5'2, she was still the shortest recruit there. She could tell which one was Itachi because he was the only other recruit around her height. They stood there standing until a total of sixteen recruits were in the clearing.

"If you're here, it's because the Hokage thought you had the potential to become the best not that you are the best. During training you will be assigned a random number from 1 to 16. Your name for the duration of training will be whatever number you receive. For the next four months, I will be one of your trainers. Call me Bear-taicho. Many of you have only had academy-senseis or jonin-sensei teach or train you before. I'm not your sensei. None of your other trainers are your senseis either. We are your commanding officers and you recruits are our soldiers. There will be no back talk or questioning any of the training methods. This will be the only warning you recruits get. Failure to comply may result in getting kicked from ANBU. Do you understand?" At hearing a multitude of Yes Bear-taicho ringing through the clearing, the tall ANBU member continued, "Some of you may decide during the course of training that ANBU is not for you. That is fine. However everything to do with ANBU training and your fellow recruits is classified information. Should any of you choose to spill said classified information, there will be a not so friendly visit to the T&I division and depending on the situation possibly a jail cell with your name on it or worse. Am I clear?"

After another chorus of Yes Bear-taicho rang through the clearing Bear-taicho said, "Good. Many of you if not all of you have exemplified the mental competence to not disclose your full abilities through the course of your ninja career and I admire that. A true shinobi only shows what is needed to defeat their opponents nothing more. For some of you this isn't your first attempt at joining ANBU and you already know what I'm about to say. During training you **will** give it your all. I'm not telling you to show off your entire ninjutsu or genjutsu repertoire. I'm talking about your speed, your stamina, your taijutsu, your intelligence, and your cunning. Those deemed unready for the demanding pace of ANBU will be dropped after the first month. Don't take it personally; if you are unready for ANBU, dropping you from the program is essentially saving your life. Also how recruits do in training and the strengths they possess will affect squad placement. Speaking of strengths those of you with kekkei genkai are banned from using them during the duration of training whether in spars or to assist in completing the exercises. There will be times during missions that a person cannot reveal what nation they hail from and doing so would have grave consequences. If any of you can't survive the next four months and succeed without the usage of a kekkei genkai, you're not ready for ANBU anyways."

After Bear-taicho's spiel, he proceeded to start them on first of three days of grueling tests. For the first test, he doused them all in a liquid that released a concentrated scent of blood and told they would be running through the forest of death for the next five hours to test their endurance, reflexes, and agility.

Misaki hadn't been too concerned until Bear-taicho mentioned that along with avoiding the predators that lived in the forest, they would be avoiding attacks from full-fledged ANBU members. The ANBU members wouldn't be exceeding the speed of an average jonin but they couldn't retaliate against either the animals or ANBU only evade and run.

He said that anytime a recruit made a sound at being injured fifteen minutes would be added to that recruit's five hours and if they retaliated thirty minutes would be added. The recruits all took off as they had only a minute head start before he sent ANBU after them.

Three hours later Misaki had never been gladder for Gai's intense physical training as she continued to dodge various projectiles, taijutsu attacks, and tiger attacks. Bear-taicho hadn't told them how many ANBU that were hunting them down but Misaki figured he had at least one per recruit judging from the dogged way the ANBU had pursued her from the start of the test and the fact that every recruit she had passed in the forest had one ANBU pursuing them.

When the five hour mark hit, Bear-taicho flared his chakra and Misaki made her way to the clearing. As she looked around at the other ten recruits that were in the clearing with her she noticed that seven of them were covered in various scrapes and cuts. The missing six recruits had obviously yelped or retaliated and were forced to continue doing the exercise.

Two other recruits had escaped unscathed like she had. One she could tell was Itachi. She didn't know who the other recruit was.

Bear-taicho gave them a ten minute break to do whatever they needed and suggested they eat one of the ration bars from the back-waste pouches. As they sat down grateful for the short reprieve, Bear-taicho told them that the next test was a two hour comprehensive written exam where they would be tested on their knowledge on the various shinobi arts, foreign affairs, and hypothetical situations.

When the ten minute break was over, they were each lead to a separate room in the tower in the middle of the forest of death and given a hundred question test. As Misaki worked her way through the test she aced the portion on about knowledge on the shinobi arts and hypothetical situations but her answers on foreign affairs was a bit spotty.

After starting the recruits that finished the run started on the written test, Bear inwardly smirked at the expressions on the faces of the recruits that hadn't when they found out however much longer they had extended their run time was time used from their two hour written test.

The written test wasn't just testing their knowledge. It was a psychological test as well. Aside from being able to gauge their personality from the way they answered all of the questions, the less time the recruit had to complete the test the more it revealed about their personality.

Some recruits chose to rush through the entire test and answer the all the questions sparingly, some chose to thoroughly answer certain questions on knowledge they were well versed on and just skip ones they couldn't answer well. Others chose to start their way at the beginning and work their way through what they could. Some were even able to answer all of the questions well within the time limit. The way the recruit chose to try and "score" the most points was very telling about their personalities.

Different personalities excelled in certain areas and were not as good in other areas. Like a recruit that chose to rush through the entire test to so they could answer all the questions briefly but none of them well may not be a good fit for investigating things closely whereas the recruits that chose to thoroughly answer the questions might be.

Bear continued to watch the cameras screens that showed all sixteen recruits. He was very interested to see how the two young prodigies among the recruits did. Though they were the youngest they had both been at the top speed and stamina wise during the first test. So far, they seemed to be breezing through the second test.

At 2 o'clock on the dot, the recruits were ushered from their test rooms back to the clearing in front of the tower where they started. Their various cuts and scrapes were healed by a masked ANBU member. After the masked ANBU healed the recruits that needed healing, they went back to stand next to Bear-taicho.

"That was your final test for today. I'm sure many of you are smiling behind your masks." Seeing many of them perk up, Bear couldn't help but grin under his mask, "You won't be tested on anything else today but you're not done with training yet. I will assign you to a group with three of your other trainees. Each group will be sent to a different quadrant of the Forest of Death. I will be giving you an object to protect. You guys have from now until 8am tomorrow to either create a base to fortify or prepare to fend off anywhere from two to four ANBU. No ninjutsu and no genjutsu but other than that you can use anything at your disposal to protect your base and or defeat attacking ANBU. The team that lasts the longest will be given a 4 hour break. As for the other three teams… well I have more of that concentrated liquid from earlier. The tigers are getting a little fat and could use more exercise."

Misaki was assigned to a team with Itachi who was recruit 5; recruit 9 who had been the other recruit who had escaped unscathed from the first tiger run and recruit 2. Normally she would be ecstatic to be on a team with Itachi. She was still furious at him though and judging by the shift in posture when they were assigned to the same team, he knew it too.

But she wasn't about to pass up the chance of a four hour break. They would be undergoing testing in the forest for the next two days. A break meant a shower and a chance to eat something other than a ration bar or whatever a person managed to catch in the forest.

Their team had been assigned the northeast quadrant of the Forest of Death. From the map she had briefly seen, she knew it was the hardest area to defend. The southeast and northwest corners both had rivers running through their areas and large clearings. It would be easier to spot incoming hostiles. The team that had gotten the southwest corner was the luckiest. That area had a few large caves that they fortify and use as a base.

As their team made camp they discussed the best possible way to survive the longest as well as what to do with the flag they had been given to protect. The northeast quadrant they had been assigned was a dense forest with little to no large clearings. With all the surrounding foliage it would be difficult to spot incoming hostiles. Leaf ninja were especially skilled at hiding among the dense foliage of trees.

There was nothing in the environment to assist at making a base to defend so they agreed their team's best shot would be to set thorough traps throughout the whole area today and lead the ANBU through those traps after their base fell. With the numerous traps and the fact that three out of the four shinobi on the team had excelled at the tiger run they had a pretty fair shot at surviving the longest. After the ANBU were worn down from all the traps they would engage them in a fight.

After discussing strategies, strengths, and weaknesses they decided to put Recruit 2 and 9 as partners and Itachi and Misaki would be teamed up together if they could manage to split up the ANBU. Recruit 2 told them he specialized in taijutsu and recruit 9 was a mid to long range fighter. Misaki and Itachi's identities had been pretty obvious to the other recruits. As previous teammates they would have the best teamwork together. If the squad decided to not follow them and split up then they would group up as four to use guerilla warfare to take them out. Plans made, they spent the next nine hours trapping every corner of their quadrant and setting up false trails before Misaki took first watch and the rest of her team went to sleep.

* * *

OMAKE (dedicated to sweetandsimple1)

During Haku's second year at the academy one day after school while Misaki was preparing dinner for Haku and the guests that would soon arrive he asked her, "Misaki-nee what does it mean to jump someone's bones? I was hanging out with Ren-san after school and after we scaled a tree to avoid some of his fan girls we heard one of them say that as they were leaving. I asked Ren-san what it meant and the tips of his ears turned red and he told me to ask you."

Misaki choked at hearing Haku ask her what jumping someone's bones meant.

Why were thirteen year old girls going around saying that…? Weren't they a little young to be saying that? What the bloody hell was the Academy teaching now-a-days? Damn Ren's fangirls! What was it about Uchiha boys that girls found so irresistible? With the way they chased them, one would think that they were the last slice of cake and the girls were all Akimichis.

Turning to face Haku and seeing his child-like innocent eyes shining with curiosity, Misaki couldn't do it. "Well… jumping someone's bones is when you play tag with them. Only it's a game of tag for older people. You can't play it until you're way older. Okay?"

Seeing Haku nod, Misaki inwardly sighed in relief. He was only 8. She'd let the academy handle giving Haku the dreaded Talk in a few years. She'd let Tsume do it but Tsume's version of the Talk had mentally scarred Misaki and she wasn't actually a prepubescent girl that didn't know. In fact she was pretty sure Tsume mentally scarred her on purpose. Misaki guessed it was Tsume's way of encouraging abstinence. Actually... perhaps she would have Tsume give Haku the Talk.

Thirty minutes later during a discussion about speed Haku turned to where Shisui sat next to him eating dinner. "Shisui-niisan and Itachi-niisan you guys should jump Misaki-nee's bones or Misaki-nee should jump yours and see who is faster."

When Haku had spoken Shisui had been facing Itachi as he was talking to him. At Haku's words he spat the tea he had been drinking all over Itachi's face. Itachi calmly wiped his face down with a napkin as he gave Shisui the gimlet eye. All three of them turned bright red from Haku's words.

With blushes coloring their faces the two boys turned to Haku in shock as Shisui asked, "Haku-kun what did you just say?"

"I said you both should jump Misaki-nee's bones. It's more fun with more people. I know it's a game for only older people but you guys are old enough right? You're Ren-san's age."

At the incredulous look from her two friends Misaki blushed even harder. "Ah… Haku it's a game of tag for way older people. Like people that are Tsume-oba's age, okay? In fact, please do not say those words for the next 10 to 15 years. The girl that said she wanted to do that Ren-kun is too young to play that game too." As Haku nodded and resumed eating she gave her friends a pointed glance and said one word, "Fangirls."

A look of comprehension and horror dawned on both their faces before they resumed eating. Judging from the amused glint in Itachi's eyes and the occasional snickers from Shisui though, they weren't about to let her live this down anytime soon. When she first explained it to Haku she probably should have been more specific about the age thing and mentioned to him that he shouldn't go around saying it.


	16. ANBU Training and New Acquaintances

A/N: To mimosa, thanks for the review. Sorry I didn't see your review as it was under the review moderation tab. Yes Naruto does exist in this universe and shall be appearing in my story. Naruto has been mentioned once so far, the Sandaime mentioned that Naruto at the end of chapter 12. Naruto is infamous among residents of Konoha that experienced the Kyuubi attack or the children of those who had lived through it. None of which applies to Misaki as she came to Konoha two years after the Kyuubi attack. Misaki hasn't really befriended any civilian adults and the shinobi adults she knows aren't the type to either disparage Naruto or even mention him for any reason. I can't see random strangers going up to Misaki to complain about Naruto unless they happened to see them interact together. Konoha is a bustling metropolis and with Misaki being so busy she has yet to run into him. A person might rant or complain about Naruto to their friends or acquaintances but not a total stranger about it. Even if a random vendor had mentioned someone as a troublemaker as Misaki has yet to meet him so it's not a comment or anything she would make a note of. Hope this answers your questions :)

To michaela page 77, thanks I'm glad that you enjoyed my story enough to review!

To Lady Kira, thanks for the review. I don't want to spoil anything regarding that but don't worry I didn't forget about Obito or about the Uchiha that are traitorous. I already know what I want to do with the whole Uchiha Massacre that I think will be interesting. Glad you liked the omake :)

To lilnudger82, thanks for the rave review! I'm glad to hear that you liked this chapter and that the omake made you laugh.

To Shae Vizla, thanks for another review. Yeah Danzo is definitely one of the characters in Naruto that I liked least. In the canon, Itachi didn't have a close bond with his teammates so he wouldn't have been able to bounce ideas off of them which obviously wasn't the case with Misaki. Ultimately Itachi's number 1 priority is Sasuke followed by the village and then the clan. Like you said, he believes that she will be stubborn and skilled enough to survive and her skills will aid in their endeavor. But he wouldn't be doing what he did to Sasuke to Haku. Haku's clan doesn't have a traitorous past that Itachi wants to deter him from looking into. Itachi mentioned that another Uchiha was helping them with the task force but he never said whether or not the other Uchiha was joining ANBU with them. Recruit number 9 isn't Shisui. Misaki knows Shisui well enough that she would've been able to tell it was him. Thanks, I'm glad to hear you were amused by the omake. It's definitely something that Haku's going to regret or be teased for saying once he's older.

To Shadow of God, thanks for the review! I always wondered what the purpose of the tower in training ground 44 was so I decided to use it as the initial ANBU training ground. In my story even if ANBU did have secret training facilities underground, they wouldn't expose them to recruits that may or may not make the cut. The initial three days of testing will be rough as Bear-taicho is trying to weed out anyone who isn't fit for ANBU or lacks the willpower or determination. He is also trying to gauge their skill levels. All the recruits look good on paper but he doesn't want to waste time training people that don't have a shot and some of them haven't shown the full extent of their abilities. The actually training that follows the testing will be rigorous as well but it will work its way up to how grueling the testing was. The purpose of them being number recruits was more to assist in keeping their identities a secret and giving the recruits a name to be able to call out. I figured it would be kind of hard to be like "hey you" every time a recruit needed to speak to another. Yes this training will help make her strong enough to be a jonin. I have plans in mind for Misaki in relation to becoming a jonin but it won't be for a while. The Uchiha massacre will be at the very least slightly different than canon. Danzo is a very crafty and difficult opponent who the Sandaime has been in a cold war with for a long time. Even knowing that it is him behind it, they may or may not have enough time to stop him.

To deathgeonous, thanks for another review! Happy to hear that you liked this chapter.

To sweetandsimple1, thank you for another review. I'm glad you liked the explanation of each rank, Misaki's reaction to Itachi, and Itachi's characterization. From how protective she was over her parents as Draco I can't imagine her not reacting that way. Like you said in the canon, he placed Sasuke, the village, and the clan above all else and he sacrificed so much because of that. So in my story I didn't want to change such a core aspect of who Itachi was. I definitely could not survive it either. I would be one of the ones that yelped and was running forever. You're welcome, happy to hear that you liked the omake :D it was an awesome suggestion. As soon as I read your suggestion, I knew where I wanted to go with it. I couldn't resist putting that part in lol.

To Pri-Chan 1410, thanks for the review! Glad that you find my story interesting.

To MarieCP, thank you for enjoying my story enough to review!

To the guest that reviewed, thanks for reviewing. The Hokage doesn't know which ANBU has been corrupted by Danzo. He just knows that some ANBU have been.

* * *

 **Chapter 16: ANBU Training and New Acquaintances**

As Itachi had the last watch, he woke all his teammates up at 7am sharp. Though the ANBU sent to test their fortifications wouldn't show up until 8, they wanted to eat and be alert and in position by the time they showed up. Misaki and recruit 9 would be waiting in the base they had created while Itachi and recruit 2 waited in trees nearby.

Last night Misaki had helped with trapping the quadrant for a few hours before she split off to lay down barrier seals in their base. She spent the rest of the afternoon and night writing out her seals. She laid down two different types of complicated seals.

One was a barrier seal would reflect ninjutsu, projectiles, and any kind of physical attack until the seal ran out of chakra. It was a fairly chakra intensive seal. Unfortunately, as Misaki needed chakra to fend off the ANBU she could only use what she would be able to replenish by the following morning. It should be able to fend off several attacks though.

Misaki named the other seal an anti-tracking seal. It made the shinobi virtually untraceable as long as they didn't move and they weren't spotted visually. It was a double layered seal that kept sensors from picking up their scent, shinobi from hearing any noise, and prevented their chakra from being sensed.

It was much more complex than the barrier seal but a lot less chakra intensive. She put one each onto high branches on two of large trees close to their central base where Itachi and recruit 2 would lie in wait for the ANBU. Itachi's exceptional throwing weapon skills would serve as an excellent counter ambush once the barrier seal on their central base fell.

At 8 o'clock a loud gong rang across the forest, startling flocks of birds to take off to the skies. At the same time, Misaki heard the snap of one of the traps several trees away going off as two ANBU stepped out in the clearing.

For some reason as she stared at one of the ANBU, she had the strangest feeling like she had seen him somewhere before. She didn't know when or how but something about him struck her as vaguely familiar.

Elsewhere in the central control room, Bear watched the two ANBU step into the northeast quadrant where the four most promising recruits were teamed up. During the third exercise, they always sent the four most promising recruits to the northeast quadrant.

It was the most difficult area to make a base to fortify and would push their creativity and skills to the limits. He had watched each of the teams prep all yesterday afternoon and night. Bear was definitely interested in seeing the results of recruits 2,5,9, and 12 especially considering the two ANBU that had volunteered to test them.

All the ANBU members that participated in the training of recruits other than the four designated trainers were volunteers. Some ANBU wanted to help train future members, some enjoyed it as a form of destressing, and others cheerfully used it to haze the new recruits. These two ANBU, however, rarely participated in the training of new recruits.

As Bear sat with gleeful anticipation to watch the unfolding events, in the northeast quadrant Misaki watched as the tall ANBU paused for a second before picking up a rock and throwing it at them. Seeing it crumble against an invisible barrier, the two ANBU unleashed a barrage of shuriken before they threw a jutsu at the barrier.

Misaki could feel the barrier weakening but knew that it could withstand a few more jutsus. They wanted the ANBU to waste as much chakra as they could. They had decided last night that the best way to win would be a battle of attrition.

After two more jutsu, she knew that the barrier wouldn't hold for much longer. So she shifted slightly giving Itachi and Recruit 2 the signal.

Three seconds later, Misaki dropped the barrier seal and they all simultaneously attacked the two ANBU. Itachi threw kunai with exploding tags at the ANBU as Recruit 2 threw a smoke bomb. Misaki darted forward and kicked the shorter anbu in the solar plexus before using the smoke as cover to join Itachi. Recruit 9's punch missed slightly and hit the shoulder instead of the abdomen of the taller ANBU before he too used the smoke as cover to join up with recruit 2 and they took off through the quadrant.

Misaki and Itachi raced through the trees intent on leading the ANBU through the various traps they had set. The ANBU had chosen not to take the bait and split up. They both followed Itachi and Misaki through the trees so as planned Recruits 2 and 9 circled back and were attacking the ANBU from behind as they chased Itachi and Misaki.

At first the ANBU had been pursuing them at a fairly slow speed, the speed of a strong chunin, as opposed to the ANBU that had chased them with an average jonin's speed during the first test. But as time went on their speed increased especially with Misaki leaving explosive touch seal presents on tree branches for them as they were pursuing her and Itachi.

An hour into the chase, they heard a gong reverberate through the forest signaling that one of the teams had been knocked out. Misaki mentally cheered that they only had to survive longer than two more teams.

The traps and explosive seals had made the ANBU more cautious about pursuing them but even with all the traps, explosive seals, and attacks from the four recruits they didn't seem to be slowing much. They only had about a third of the traps left in the forest which meant it would be time to move onto the next phase of their plan soon.

During the hour that they were being chased Misaki and Itachi had tested what methods the ANBU were using to track them. Suppressing their chakra to minimal amounts and the use of multiple smoke bombs hadn't worked in losing them so they weren't using chakra or vision to track them.

Most likely they were using some kind of scent based tracking. That could also explain why Misaki found one of the ANBU vaguely familiar. He could be an Inuzuka clan member that she had seen in passing. Now they just had to pass that information to their team.

When they had been making plans the night before they decided that if the ANBU was using chakra to test them they would suppress their chakra three times in rapid succession, if they were using vision they would use two smoke bombs in a row to signify it, and if they were using scent based tracking they would slash trees they passed with kunai.

Recruit 2 and 9 stopped pursuing so Itachi and Misaki knew they had received the message so Misaki placed a large touch blast explosive seal while Itachi threw a smoke bomb. Under the cover of the explosion and smoke they both cast a scent suppression jutsu that Shogo had taught them before heading for the rendezvous spot.

Yesterday they decided on a rendezvous spot and Misaki laid down her anti-tracking seal on the ground near the base of a tree with thick foliage. With a scent based tracker, they would have to decipher which path they took from older scents. They had done so many loops through their quadrant of the forest that the forest was saturated with their scent.

It would give them a short reprieve until the ANBU managed to track them down. Misaki estimated they had anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes to catch their breath and discuss any skills or strengths they had noticed about the two ANBU chasing them before engaging in a fight.

As the ANBU members tracked them down, they couldn't help but be impressed. It was a well thought out plan. Some of the traps they had laid down were quite complex. Their various traps would have felled or injured some jonin and any chunin pursuers following them. With the forest saturated from their scents, one of the ANBU stopped and used a summoning jutsu.

"Yo boss. What can I do for you?" said a small dog wearing a vest with a henohenomoheji.

"Pakkun, I need you to track down a few recruits."

"Hmm not bad, they managed to lay down several trails but it's no match for my nose. They're this way." Pakkun said before leaping from branch to branch towards where the recruits were.

Kakashi and his teammate followed Pakkun to their location. As they were making their way through the trees, anticipation raced through Kakashi's person. After watching Itachi and Misaki's fight in the chunin exam finals a year and a half ago and hearing from Genma that it was nowhere near either of their true strengths, Kakashi wanted to test their combat prowess.

Misaki stiffened as she heard a voice from above and slightly to the left of them say, "Their trail ends here. They're somewhere around this area."

Had a third ANBU member joined them? Bear-taicho had said that there would be anywhere from two to four ANBU members pursuing each team. The four recruits exchanged glances. Their original plan was to ambush the ANBU members once they got into the area but if there were three of them they were facing an unknown.

The decision was taken out of their hands when a small pug on the forest ground walked up to them and with the same voice they heard earlier said, "Smart. Whatever you're hiding behind even with my superior nose I can't smell you guys. BOSS! They're over here."

There went their surprise ambush. Misaki inwardly cursed as they scattered from the spot and started attacking the two ANBU. Unlike when the two ANBU had been chasing them, they were now at an average jonin speed.

Fighting against two ANBU members while being restricted from using ninjutsu, genjutsu, and kekkei genkai was not fun especially as the two ANBU didn't have such restrictions. Luckily for Misaki, Itachi, and recruit 9 they were able to match the current speed of the ANBU. Recruit 2 was slightly slower but judging from how skilled he was at gentle fist that exposed him as a Hyuga, recruit 2 would be fine.

The two ANBU members worked seamlessly together. As she dodged a lightning jutsu from the taller ANBU she wondered how many elemental natures he had mastered. From her count so far he had at least three down. Upon their initial attack he had fired a fire release great fireball. Shortly after that he had used a wind release great breakthrough in tandem with his partner's water jutsu to knock recruit 9 several yards away and through many trees.

She and Itachi reengaged the taller shinobi in taijutsu as recruit 2 engaged the shorter ANBU in taijutsu and recruit 9 assisted him through taijutsu and projectile weapons. After ten minutes another gong rang through the forest as the ANBU increased their speed again and for the first time since the fight started the ferocity of their taijutsu attack.

They managed to catch recruits 2 and 9 off guard. The shorter recruit blasted one of them off into the distance with a strong water release exploding water shockwave before kicking the other through several trees.

He turned to help his partner with Itachi and Misaki. They were still slightly faster than the ANBU even with the speed increase but dodging taijutsu attacks, ninjutsu attacks, and dispelling the occasional genjutsu made it difficult to counter attack. They were able to block and dodge most blows but glancing hits here and there connected.

Thankfully, both recruit 2 and 9 were quick to recover and rejoin the fight. They were at a disadvantage now though as they were both slightly slower than the two attacking ANBU. As they were slower than the two attacking ANBU instead of splitting into two groups, the recruits attacked the two ANBU as one.

Another ten minutes passed and the ANBU increased their speed now matching the speed of Itachi and Misaki and completely outclassing the speeds of recruit 2 and 9. The fight went from quite difficult to extremely taxing.

The two ANBU were focusing on attacking recruits 2 and 9 as they were the slower opponents forcing Itachi and Misaki to intervene. After the third time she blocked a painful kick that would've caught recruit 2 in the side, she knew that she needed to do something so they could outlast the only team of recruits left.

She had never used her paralysis seals in actual combat but now as a good a time as any to test it out. She motioned to Itachi before using a quick burst of speed to sidle right up to the taller ANBU. She used her right hand to slap a paralysis touch seal on his exposed shoulder momentarily paralyzing him as she sucker punched him in the face and Itachi kicked him.

She and Itachi followed kicking and punching him following his paralyzed mid-air trajectory in the split seconds before he recovered and she slapped down another paralysis seal on his shoulder again. This time he was able to shrug it off almost instantly but it still gave Itachi and Misaki the opportunity to punt him through several trees and return to where the other ANBU member was fighting their teammates.

Racing up to the other ANBU, she placed a paralysis seal on his exposed shoulder and her three teammates dished out punishing blows as the taller ANBU reentered the area and engaged them in taijutsu. Although the ANBU were faster than two teammates of Misaki's, they warily kept out of Misaki's close range began using more mid to long range attacks instead of engaging them in taijutsu.

Through projectile weapons, taijutsu, and explosive seals her three teammates managed to herd the taller ANBU towards Misaki allowing her to slap another paralysis seal on him as her teammates connected various hits. All the trees that the ANBU had hit the recruits through and vice versa along with ninjutsu and explosive seals had created a pseudo clearing.

When a few seconds passed and the taller ANBU hadn't returned, Misaki knew that he was planning something. As they fought the shorter ANBU member, she glanced around the clearing and up at the sky in an unsuccessful attempt to locate him.

Both Itachi and Misaki felt a slight tremor in the ground and they jumped off the ground to separate trees as Misaki yelled out a warning to her teammates but it was too late. He had managed to successfully pull recruit 9 underground and knock him out. As the three remaining recruits continued fighting, Misaki wondered just who the hell this ANBU was.

Counting that earth jutsu he just used, he had shown mastery over four out of the five elements, which was nearly unheard of. The only kind of elemental jutsu he hadn't used so far was water. Aside from his skill in ninjutsu, he excelled at taijutsu.

She even recognized some elements of Gai-sempai's strong fist fighting style in his taijutsu which did not bode well for her and her team. When she recognized that, she had a horrible sinking feeling that this ANBU was Gai-sempai's eternal rival that he always spoke so highly about.

Anyone who could fight on par with Gai-sempai was way out of their league. Gai-sempai was a beast when it came to fighting and according to Gai-sempai they were current tied at 3 wins each.

After knocking out recruit 9, the ANBU increased their speed again to the point that they were slightly faster than Itachi and Misaki as they lead a furious onslaught against the three remaining recruits.

With their increased speed they reengaged the recruits in taijutsu. It was difficult for Misaki to land any more paralysis seals on them as they had realized that she needed skin to skin contact to apply them and in their ANBU uniform only their shoulders were uncovered. Their superior speed allowed them to block any attempts of her placing more seals on them.

The ANBU managed to knock out their Hyuga teammate leaving only Itachi and Misaki to deal with. Itachi and Misaki were fighting a losing battle against their vastly superior opponents when the final gong rang through the forest.

In the heat of the moment, Misaki forgot she was furious with Itachi and whirled around and gave him a high five before remembering she was still pissed at the asshole. Annoyed at herself for forgetting, she brushed past him and went to wake their downed teammates.

The ANBU members gave them a nod in congratulation before disappearing as soundlessly and quickly as they had appeared about two hours earlier at the start of the test. After both of their teammates were up, the group of four made their way to the clearing in front of the tower.

"Congratulations to the northeast quadrant team. You guys have earned your four hour break. There is food, showers, and bunks in the tower. The rest of you guys, I wasn't kidding about the tigers needing more exercise. For the next two hours the same rules apply as the initial time. For those of you that manage to not make any noises, you'll have a two hour break after that. For those that don't… well it's up to you guys how long of a break you get." Bear-taicho said once all sixteen recruits were in the clearing.

Itachi, Misaki, and their teammates entered the tower happy for the chance to eat, shower, and sleep on an actual bed. Misaki quickly ate and although she wanted to take a long relaxing shower sleep was more important so she took a quick shower before heading to sleep in one of the designated rooms.

This could possibly be the only chance to sleep on a bed in the next twenty four plus hours so Misaki was determined to make the most of it.

When the sound of a gong woke her up three and half hours later, she felt refreshed and ready for whatever came next. From when the recruits assembled at the clearing again at 2pm to 8am the next morning, they were tested mercilessly in all aspects of their taijutsu, speed, endurance, and agility.

At 8am Bear-taicho ordered them to report back to the clearing tomorrow at 5am before dismissing them to allow them to get some sleep and recuperate.

Misaki had never been so glad to hear the words dismissed before. After their brief nap, they spent the rest of the time before being dismissed undergoing rigorous testing. They hadn't even stopped to sleep for the night.

Misaki had always thought that Gai's training was exhausting but these last few days of testing made Gai's training seem like a warmup. She had never been pushed this hard or exhausted this much during training before.

After how tough the three days of testing were Misaki expected the training to start at that level. To her surprise while rigorous the training was slightly easier than the initial tests had been. Training was still very grueling but it wasn't the hell it had been the first three days.

Recruit 2, the recruit whose gentle fist taijutsu revealed him to be a Hyuga, had seemed familiar to both Itachi and Misaki during the first team exercise during the initial three days of testing. A few weeks into training they had discovered why he seemed so familiar.

Misaki had made a reference to Itachi regarding a funny story that had happened during their academy days and Recruit 2 had softly huffed in laughter. Both of them realized from the laugh that recruit 2 was Hyuga Masashi from their academy graduating class. Other than Masashi, they didn't know or recognize any of the other recruits.

After Masashi's teammate had disqualified his team during the chunin exams in Konoha, they had taken the exams after the ones Shogo had taken and all passed. Even though their team had been ready to take the Kumo exams six months earlier as Masashi was a main house Hyuga member there was no way in hell Konoha would've sent him to those exams. It was nice to know more than one of the other fifteen recruits that they were spending 12 hours a day with.

Each day of training started at 7am and ended at 7 pm.

They started with five hours of speed, endurance, and agility exercises ranging from the tiger run they had as the initial tests to completing obstacle courses as they had projectile weapons thrown at them.

After the physical training exercises, they would have a thirty minute lunch. Following lunch on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday they had four hours of lessons on foreign policy, strategy, surveillance, and tracking. On Tuesday and Sunday, they had lessons on anatomy, infiltration, how to find the best entry point and escape route, and sometimes hypothetical mission simulations. Then during the remaining three hours were spent honing their taijutsu or being taught kenjutsu.

A few days into training, they had been given three different types of swords to try out. The choices were between a katana, tanto, and a ninjato. Itachi and Misaki both found out of the three choices that a katana suited them best. Recruit 2 chose a tanto, Recruit 9 chose a ninjato, and the rest of the recruits varied between the three.

Some of the recruits had prior sword training and some like Misaki and Itachi had never even picked up a sword before. It was interesting learning how to use a katana but Misaki knew kenjutsu was something that would never serve as a primary weapon for her.

She had the agility and the speed to be a skilled kenjutsu user but she'd never master the art like someone with true talent in kenjutsu would. Like Misaki, Itachi knew he would never been a kenjutsu master but he possessed more talent in the art of kenjutsu than she did. Even at the beginning stages of training that much was obvious.

Misaki forgave Itachi 8 days into their training and with the warning that next time if he had the option he better break it to her himself. Although she had been really pissed, she knew that if she were in his position and she would've done the same thing for Haku and her family.

The lack of time she had to spend with Haku was the biggest adjustment she had to get used to during ANBU training. Although she had taken missions that ranged anywhere from a couple of days to over a week after becoming a chunin, it was different from her being in the village and not being able to spend quality time together. They had dinner together every night and spent all days Sundays together but it was hard.

Two months into training on a Friday which was the start of their first and only three day break, she made a bunch of afternoon snacks and decided to go find Haku after school and see if he wanted to eat together in the park.

As she was jumping rooftop to rooftop looking for him, she noticed him and another boy in front of a restaurant that she and Haku frequented to from time to time.

Misaki was about to turn around and leave as Haku was hanging out with a friend when she noticed the owner of the restaurant raise his hands with an intention to shove the kid Haku was with.

She shunshined between the owner and the boy before she asked, "Shimada-san is there a problem here?"

The normally affable restaurant owner scowled heavily. "I was telling them that I reserve the right to refuse service to no good troublemaking-"

"Shimada-san I hope you're not about to imply that my brother is a no good troublemaker." Misaki interrupted in a frosty tone.

"No Misaki-san it's not Haku-san that's the problem. You and your brother are more than welcome here." Shimada kindly replied before biting out," The kid with your brother, however, is not."

Misaki stopped Haku from responding to Shimada-san's words before guiding the two boys away from the restaurant. Any business owner reserved the right to refuse service to whomever they wanted. But while they walked towards the park as the kid animatedly introduced himself, she wondered what a kid that looked to be a little younger than Haku's age could've done to warrant such animosity from Shimada-san.

Setting the picnic blanket she brought on the ground, she gestured for both boys to sit as she unpacked the onigiri, baked sweet potatoes, and chicken karaage she had brought. As they chatted and ate, Misaki watched the kid out of the corner of her eyes.

He looked like any ordinary kid albeit the fact he had these weird whisker-like marks on his face. They actually made his face quite adorable with his chubby cheeks and sparkling blue eyes.

All-in-all he looked like an ordinary six year old kid. From listening to them converse, Uzumaki-san seemed like a nice enough boy, a little over-enthusiastic but she couldn't see how that would cause such hostility.

But she had always found Shimada-san to be a very reasonable person so she decided to observe the kid for the next few days during her break before making a judgment. Even though Haku liked the boy and considered him a friend, Haku was just an innocent kid.

If Uzumaki-san was a troublemaker, Misaki didn't want him to be a negative influence on Haku.

The next several days during her break, Misaki trailed after Haku's friend intent on finding out whether there was any truth to Shimada-san's statement.

Other than the fact that he ate an unhealthy amount of ramen and had a slightly disturbing obsession with the color orange, he seemed like a normal academy student. She had been surprised to find out that he was a first year academy student at the age of six. He didn't seem to be a prodigy or genius of any sorts but looks could always been deceiving.

After observing him during the weekend, she didn't find out anything except that he had a penchant for pranks. Misaki realized that he had probably pranked the restaurant owner sometime and that Shimada had not taken kindly to the prank.

Chalking up Shimada's attitude towards him being pranked by Haku's friend, she decided to disregard his words and not interfere. Haku could be friends with whomever he wanted as long as they weren't terrible people that would drag him into trouble.

Misaki had thought that was the end of it until during lunch on the first day of training after the break. She had been making her way down the empty corridor back to the lunchroom when she heard a voice right behind her ask, "Why were you following the boy?"

Misaki nearly jumped out of her skin by how close the voice was as she turned around to face whoever had snuck up on her. Whoever the person was they were extremely well trained, they had managed to get inside of striking range to her without her even noticing.

Aside from being well-trained, they were also very rude or purposely trying to intimidate her. Maybe even both. As they were both Konoha nin it was considered rude or threatening for a friendly shinobi to sneak up into such close range.

Facing the shinobi who was still unapologetically in her personal space bubble, she realized he was the taller of the two ANBU that had tested her during the protection exercise on the second day of testing. The one she suspected was Gai's eternal rival.

She was about to ask why the hell it was any of his business what she did on her free time when she noticed the subtle aura he was exuding. It wasn't quite threatening but it sure as hell was meant to be intimidating. From his stance and posture it was obvious that if he didn't find her answer to his liking that they would be having issues.

"First of all, back the hell out of my personal space." Misaki bit out sharply. She didn't care how strong or who the hell he was. She'd answer him but she hadn't done anything to him and she wasn't about to take shit from him. Once he took a few steps back, Misaki continued more calmly, "He recently befriended my brother. I witnessed a conflict between him and a normally reasonable restaurant owner that I happen to frequent. Said restaurant owner warned me he was a troublemaker so I followed him for a few days to make sure he wouldn't be a bad influence on my brother."

The shinobi stared at her for a few seconds like he was trying to determine the truthfulness of her statements before nodding and disappearing in a shunshin without saying another world.

How strange Misaki thought as she continued on her path to the lunchroom. The ANBU seemed more concerned about Uzumaki's wellbeing rather than anything. Once he had ascertained that she was telling the truth, he had dropped his threatening posture before nodding and leaving.

Why would a random ANBU care about Uzumaki-san. From what Haku had told her, he was an orphan like them. Misaki decided that as long as no harm came to Haku from hanging out with Uzumaki that it was none of her business who cared for the kid.

The final two months of training passed by and before Misaki knew it the fourteen remaining recruits were set to complete their final day of training. The final two months of training had been hell. The initial days of testing were a cakewalk compared to what Bear-taicho had them do the last two months.

But the training had definitely paid off. Misaki felt much stronger than she had four months before. Whatever a person wanted to say about ANBU's insane training methods no one could argue with the results. After the grueling four months of training both she and Itachi as strong as if not stronger than the average jonin. As she waited for Bear-taicho to speak she contemplated how much stronger she had become in four months.

"Congratulations on passing ANBU training. You are all now official ANBU members. You will be assigned a code name, given animal masks, given your tattoos, and be assigned to squads. For the next month, you will start to do specialized training as well as train with your new squads before being sent on any missions." Bear-taicho said before leading them to a closet in a remote area of the tower.

The closet he took them to had a sealed entrance at the back of it which opened up to a maze of underground passages. Once they reached the end of the underground passage they were in some sort of underground facility.

"This is the official ANBU facility and where you will spend most of your time training for the next month. In numerical order, I want each person to head down the hallway and enter the door on the right. There you will receive your codename and animal mask. Once you have received those head into the room two doors down on the left to receive your tattoos before coming back to this central area to receive squad assignments." Bear-taicho said before motioning for Masashi to head down the hallway.

Recruit 1 had dropped from training about halfway through and recruit 14 had dropped around the third month. Masashi came back with the codename eagle and a tattoo on his left shoulder. After Masashi there was horse and peacock.

When Itachi returned with codename weasel and a ferret looking mask, Misaki bit back a laugh and a sigh of relief. Even though she knew it was unlikely she had been worried about being assigned that as a codename. After her experience of literally being transformed into a ferret she'd rather have just about any mask and codename but that one.

Once Itachi returned with his weasel mask, recruit 6 went in and received a turtle mask, the next recruit came back with a gorilla mask, and the next a rhino mask. Recruit 9 who they had been grouped with during the first team test in the northeast quadrant received the codename mantis and corresponding mask.

This went on and on until it was Misaki's turn. She entered the room to the right and received the code name jaguar and the corresponding mask before heading to get her tattoo. The thought of permanently marking skin had bothered her all throughout the past four months of training. After her past experiences with marks she had not wanted to mar her skin with anything permanent.

With every member having to get a tattoo and each wearing porcelain masks with a black cloak, it had brought back nightmares of memories from long ago. She knew that ANBU was essentially a government run force and that they were the "good guys". But it didn't change the fact that the organization shared some similarities with another group that she had been forced to join as a teenager in her past life.

The first time she had seen an ANBU member after she had moved to Konoha it had scared the shit out of her and given her nightmares for weeks. Misaki had made her peace about joining ANBU but hadn't realized that they all had "membership" tattoos until a few weeks into training. But as the tattoos served as a key to enter ANBU facilities not getting a tattoo was a non-option.

So Misaki chose the next best thing. Like Itachi, she chose not to get the tattoo on either of her shoulders. Many recruits chose to get their tattoos there but Misaki liked wearing short sleeves, half sleeves, and sun dresses. Her main outfits as a genin and chunin had consisted of navy blue short sleeves or half sleeves paired with black shorts or pants and ninja sandals.

She didn't to have to constantly cover up her tattoo or have to look upon it anytime she chose to not wear long sleeves. So she chose to get her tattoo on the right side of her hip. It was a discreet place that she didn't have to worry about it showing when she wore clothes.

After Misaki returned to the central room and the rest of the recruits received their masks, codenames, and tattoos Bear-taicho began calling out squad placements. During the time that the recruits had been getting codenames and masks the room had filled up with various ANBU whose squads they were being assigned to.

As she spotted the ANBU that had questioned her about Haku's friend, she hoped that she didn't get placed with him. While he was strong, he was still a jackass for sneaking into her guard like that and trying to intimidate her. To top it all off he left without a word or even a gesture of apology.

But as more and more codenames got called and fewer and fewer recruits were left, she realized that either she or Itachi if not both might be assigned to his squad. When Bear-taicho assigned all of the recruits but panther and weasel, she realized that the only squad left that hadn't been assigned their new teammates was the tall ANBU with the weird hair's squad.

Bear-taicho called out Jaguar and Weasel and assigned them to Team Ro. As she and Itachi walked over to their new squad captain Misaki was glad that at least she had Itachi as a teammate. It's not like she would have to spend much time with her squad outside of ANBU missions.

But then Misaki remembered that the Hokage had said their eventual ANBU teammates would be part of the task force. With a mental groan she realized that on top of running missions as a squad, she would also be spending time with them doing what they needed to do with the task force.

Great, just great Misaki thought to herself. Hopefully their new captain turned out to be less of a jerk than he had seemed the last time she met him.

On the bright side at least she knew that their captain was extremely skilled. Not many shinobis were able to match Gai in any kind of fight let alone in a taijutsu fight or use more than two or three elemental natures.

This ANBU had shown himself to be able to defeat Gai in any kind of fight and use four out of the five elemental natures. Generally people that were able to use wind natured elemental chakra were able to use water natured elemental chakra proficiently as well so Misaki had a feeling that her new captain could actually use all five.

As Kakashi led his two new teammates through a tour of the ANBU facility, he knew he would have to speak to his new female teammate after dismissing Tenzo and the Uchiha. As more and more names of recruits had been called her scent slowly began to leak hints of dread.

He hadn't known what was causing the dread until she and her teammate were assigned to his squad. Misaki was good and her body language hadn't given anything away but at hearing Bear-taicho's squad assignment and as she made her way to them her scent had become laced with dismay and irritation.

Obviously, he had not made a great impression on his future teammate when he intentionally cornered and intimidated her. Even though he had read the file the Sandaime had given him on his future teammate when he saw her following Naruto his first thought was to make sure she wasn't a danger to him.

He couldn't blame her for feeling that way. If anyone did that to him he'd feel the same but they needed to clear the air and make sure it wouldn't affect their teamwork or future missions.

Despite not being able to been seen with Naruto in public. Kakashi tried his best to protect Naruto whenever he could. After Kyuubi attack the Sandaime had forbid him from becoming Naruto's primary caregiver and even visiting him as it would be a dead giveaway exactly whose son Naruto was.

It had hurt to know that he couldn't be around Naruto but he knew that the Sandaime's statements were true. The instant anyone caught wind of him hanging around Naruto combined with Naruto's physical characteristics they would instantly know his lineage.

So Kakashi had done what he could. He dropped off anonymous birthday presents, books, takeout, and groceries. In lieu of being able to spend time with Naruto as Kakashi, he had signed up for guard shifts as ANBU operative Hound and spent time with Naruto that way.

The few precious moments he was able to spend with Naruto were both a blessing and a curse. It was one of the few things that brought him joy in life. Spending time with Naruto's innocent, exuberant self was one of the few spots of sunshine in his otherwise dark and gloomy world.

At the same time spending time with Naruto was bittersweet and would sometimes plunge Kakashi into the depths of despair. Generally a guard shift with Naruto was followed by a few hours at the memorial stone. Even gazing upon his person made Kakashi think of people long gone. He was a carbon copy of Minato with Kushina's bright personality. He even had Kushina's verbal tick.

Naruto reminded Kakashi of all he had lost and the times that he wished he could return to. Of times and people that he hadn't fully appreciated until it was too late and they were all gone. He reminded Kakashi of eating the home-cooked food Kushina-neechan would make for him, training with Minato-sensei, and so many other precious but painful memories.

It killed him to know that Naruto was alone and would never get the chance to meet his parents or experience what wonderful and loving people they were. He knew what it felt like to be alone in the world with the world against you.

Minato-sensei, Kushina-neechan, and his genin teammates had saved him from that lonely life. So even though it deeply pained him to see a mini version of Minato with Kushina's cheery grin, Kakashi still did the guard shifts that he could. He owed it to Minato-sensei and Kushina-neechan to do what he could.

If things had only turned out differently, Naruto would have even grown up as his little brother. Kakashi had learned from his past mistakes. Though Naruto wasn't a teammate, he was pack and Kakashi wouldn't abandon him.

After Tenzo and he finished giving their two new teammates the grand tour, he dismissed all of them except Jaguar. Her control over her body language was excellent but her scent began exuding wariness the instant she had been kept back.

"Jaguar-san, I wanted to apologize for my behavior the other day. I was out of line. I was concerned as to why an ANBU recruit was following the kid but I still shouldn't have done that." Kakashi apologized. After his apology, her scent lost the notes of wariness as Jaguar accepted his apology before leaving. She definitely wasn't his biggest fan but when she accepted his apology the only thing he could detect was sincerity.

* * *

Elsewhere Uzumaki Naruto waited for Haku to be let out from class as he thought about how happy he had become. There had been days where he never thought he'd be able to be this happy.

During the first couple weeks of his first year of the academy, he had begun to lose hope that it would be different from the orphanage. Initially, he had thought that joining the academy would make it easier to make friends. However, he soon found that even if he made friends with someone that the next day they would avert their eyes, ignore him, or tell him that their parents didn't want to be friends.

Then one day as two second year students were trying to bully him during lunch, a boy stood up for him and told the bullies off. Naruto had hesitantly exchanged names with him after which he prepared himself for the inevitable change that usually happened. For some reason even if someone didn't have a problem with him, once they heard his name their eyes and attitude towards him changed.

To his surprise, Haku introduced himself to Naruto and showed no signs of changing at the mention of his name. Seeing that, Naruto became slightly hopeful that he would finally be able to make his first friend so he asked Haku if he wanted to eat lunch together to which Haku agreed.

The next day Naruto almost didn't want to go to the academy because he was afraid of finding out once more that a potential friend had been warned to stay away from him. But he still hoped that wouldn't be the case, so he forced himself to swallow his nerves and go to the academy.

At school Haku not only waved at him before entering his classroom but Haku also ate lunch with him and shared his delicious bento when Haku saw that he hadn't brought lunch.

During the month and half that passed by after initially meeting Haku, they became really good friends. For the first time in his life, Naruto had an actual friend. Even though he loved jiji, old man ichikaru, and Ayame-neechan it was different having a friend close to his age. Naruto found that having someone who he could play with after school rocked.

Then it all came crashing down when they had tried to eat at a restaurant that Haku usually went to with his sister. As soon as he had seen the old man's eyes change at the sight of him, he had known it wasn't going to be pretty.

He had tried to drag Haku away but was unable to before the old man came and started yelling at them. Naruto had seen the man raise his arms to shove him and had braced himself to be shoved when a kunoichi appeared in between them and stopped the restaurant owner in his tracks.

When he had found out that the mysterious kunoichi was Haku's sister, Naruto cringed. He hadn't wanted her first impression of him to be that of a troublemaker getting kicked out of a restaurant. Haku had mentioned to him that his sister usually met whomever he became friends with but that she had been too busy to do so in the recent months.

Though he felt bad for the sadness that he heard in Haku's voice when he mentioned it, a part of him felt a tiny bit glad that at least for the time being Haku would be able to be his friend. Haku had said his sister was the best ever and really nice but Naruto didn't know if Haku's sister would be okay with Haku being friends with him. Most villagers especially the older ones did not like him.

So he had tried his best to be on his best behavior and display good manners while introducing himself to her and talking to her. Her eyes weren't cold or angry like the villagers but they didn't display warmth like Hokage-jiji either. Naruto was unable to figure out what the expression in her eyes when she looked at him meant. Usually that tended to not bode well for him.

But on the other hand, she was already better than most people who would've left him or told him to leave. She even shared the food she had packed for a picnic with him. Naruto had always seen families eating together on a picnic blanket but he had never had anyone to share a blanket with or go on a picnic with.

Haku's sister, Misaki, had seemed like she didn't have an issue with his presence but Naruto had been fooled by people before. Some people chose to angrily rant and rave at him and others chose to be fake polite and cold. He didn't know if she fell into either category but he hoped she didn't.

So when lunchtime approached the Monday after meeting Haku's sister he had been nervous. It felt like there was a ball of lead in his stomach.

Naruto didn't know what he would do if the person who had become his best friend in the past month and half didn't show up at their spot for lunch today. He had never had a friend let alone a best friend before and he was terrified of losing Haku.

As minutes ticked by without Haku showing up, Naruto felt his hope slowly start to wither away. Just when he was about to give into his sadness Haku showed up carrying two wrapped bento. Since Haku had found out that Naruto was an orphan, he started to bring bigger lunches and shared his lunch with Naruto. But he had never brought two bentos before.

Haku sat down and handed one of the wrapped bento to Naruto. "Here, my sister made a separate bento for you. She said from now on she'll pack them into two instead of one giant bento."

Naruto thanked Haku before grabbing onto the bento and gingerly taking off the handkerchief around the box. As he slowly lifted the cover of the bento Naruto hoped it wasn't a trick like the time one of his classmates asked him to play after school and never showed up. Or the time that a classmate asked for Naruto's help with a prank and then pinned the blame on him or any of the other times that people had tricked him.

Looking down into the open box, an uncontrollable smile appeared on his face. The bento was identical to the one Haku had just opened down to the octopus sausages, the rice balls decorated as pandas, and the icky vegetables. No one had ever made anything just for him before.

Sure the matron at the orphanage had cooked food for all the orphans but it wasn't the same. For some reason whenever the matron cooked, his food ended up burnt and tasteless compared to everyone else's. He had tried asking her about it once. Instead of answers he received a hard cuff to the head and a dark glare as she angrily muttered that he should be grateful that his food was edible.

At the time, Naruto hadn't known what edible meant but he had known what a dark glare like that meant. Even a year ago at the age of 5 Naruto had seen them too often to not know what glares like that meant. After that he never asked the matron again.

As he looked down at the neatly decorated bento, he couldn't stop the tears from trickling down his face. He rubbed his eyes and placed his orange goggles over his eyes as Naruto said, "I'm not crying. I just got something in my eye."

Haku nodded as he shifted slightly so he was no longer facing Naruto before they both started to eat their bentos in a peaceful silence. Despite having Misaki's cooking before when he shared Haku's bento, for some reason that day it tasted better than it had ever before. While ramen was still hands down the best food in the world, it was a close second. Eating a homemade bento that someone made especially for him as he sat down next to an actual friend had filled Naruto with indescribable joy.

Hearing Haku call out his name, Naruto pulled himself out of his thoughts and smiled at his best friend as they made their way to the park.


	17. Pros and Cons of Being ANBU

A/N: Sorry that it's been a while since I last updated, I just was pretty busy.

In the coming chapters, I just wanted to let everyone know that anything to do with the task force against danzo or anything pertaining to the Uchiha massacre will only been seen through Itachi's pov or Misaki's pov. Maybe I will do a few passages from Kakashi or Tenzo's pov but I won't be doing any 3rd person omniscient passages. Misaki and Itachi are 11 and 12 respectively. Shogo, Taro, Masashi, Natsumi and her teammates, and their other academy classmates are now 16 and 17.

To the guests that reviewed thanks for the reviews :)

To lilnudger82, thanks for the review and I'm glad you enjoyed Kakashi and Naruto's povs.

To Lady Kira, thank you for the review. I was contemplating on doing that but as the weasel mask and codename was actually Itachi's in canon I opted to keep it that way besides I felt like jaguar suits Misaki pretty well. For now Misaki regards Naruto as she would any of Haku's friends nothing more and nothing less. So far Itachi hasn't brought Sasuke over for play dates with Haku so he probably won't do that. The reasons for that will come up either in this chapter or the next. Your question regarding Shisui will be answered in this chapter.

To MarieCP, thanks for another review! I'm glad you liked Naruto's introduction. In regards to the task force and whispers of the Uchiha coup d'etat, only what Misaki or Itachi personally knows is going to be shown. For all they know, the Hokage might have talked to Fugaku or maybe he was unable to. Misaki doesn't know who is working on the task force aside from the Nara clan head, Yamanaka clan head, the Hokage, Itachi, and their new ANBU teammates. Itachi knows all of that plus the additional close friend / clan member of his who is helping as well. I don't want to say too much and spoil anything but I think you'll find the arc pretty interesting especially when everything is revealed.

To Shae Vizla, thank you for the review. Good job on guessing both of their identities. I tried to hint to their identities without flat out saying them. Although when pakkun was summoned I'm sure that everyone knew the identity of the taller ANBU. Yeah Misaki was definitely upset by Kakashi's actions but she realized that for whatever reason he was protective over Naruto and accepted his apology. Itach was on team Ro with Tenzo and Kakashi in the canon so I decided to keep that part the same. Plus both Kakashi and Tenzo are going to play a relatively big part in the upcoming task force.

To duchessliz, thanks for the review! It's nice to hear that you found the chapter sweet :)

To deathgeonous, thank you for another review. Yup, he's finally introduced and will be in the story more. He probably won't be in every chapter but he will start to appear more and more as the chapters go on.

To Shadow of God, thanks for another great review. Well as you don't want the situation to end easily, you'll definitely enjoy what I have planned. I don't want to give away too much about what I plan to do so I'm not going to say anything more regarding the plans of I have in regards to Danzo. Interesting, Kabuto is a pretty unique character. He was definitely strong enough to be independent but like you said he chose to be subservient to Orochimaru instead. In the canon the events with Nono and Danzo really warped his personality and Orochimaru managed to swoop in and gain his eternal loyalty. With the changes I have made to the storyline and that changes that will happen there are multiple paths I could choose to take Kabuto. I might only do a few but drastic changes or maybe I will overhaul his entire storyline. I will keep your comments in mind when I decide what to do with him.

To Darkjaden, thank you for the review. At this point, no he will not be training with Haku. Right now Naruto is just overjoyed at having a friend to play with. In the canon, it doesn't seem like he becomes serious about his ninja career until becoming a genin. I won't be having Naruto turn out the same way as his canon counterpart but for now he's just a six year old that wants to play with his first friend.

To sweetandsimlpe1, thanks for another review. I'm glad that you enjoyed my portrayal of Kakashi. I felt like with how the Sandaime hid Naruto's parentage from him in the canon that most likely he warned Kakashi to stay away as anyone who knew of the yellow flash knew that his only surviving student was Kakashi. Thanks, I try to use different adverbs, adjectives and action verbs to give more depth and description to my action scenes. Like saying Misaki darted forward, launched herself at, or dashed towards instead of using run or writing that an attack missed by a hair's breadth rather than saying it missed by a little. If I wanted to emphasize a certain part instead of writing the flame barely missed her and caused a lot of damage to a tree behind her, I would maybe write that she dodged the raging inferno so narrowly that Misaki felt her skin prickle from the intense heat radiating off of it as the fireball sped past her incinerating a tree a few paces away. In fact I'm actually going to use that sentence in one of my next fight scenes. I also try to include thoughts or interactions that Misaki, her teammates, or opponents might have during combat like in the mountain country mission how after witnessing Shisui's speed "Misaki had thought she was fast but witnessing Shisui's speed was unreal" or "Misaki and Shisui exchanged glances as they dodged another fiery inferno. They both knew that they had to stop being on the defensive and go on the offensive. At first…start aiming to kill" [both from ch14] to add some depth to my combat scenes so it's not just person x hits person y etc. Beyond that I just try to write what I would find interesting to read. I hope that any of the aforementioned things are able to help you :)

To Pri-chan 1410, thanks for another review! I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed Haku and Naruto's interactions.

To Firerosemon, thank you for the review :) It's nice to hear that you think it's original and enjoy the Itachi/Misaki interaction.

* * *

 **Chapter 17: Pros and Cons of Being ANBU**

In ANBU headquarters, Misaki was walking past a masked ANBU down a mostly empty corridor as she headed towards the exit that led to the secret passageway ending in the tower in the forest of death. She had just finished a grueling day of specialized infiltration training and team training when someone latched both arms around her neck.

She immediately elbowed him in the solar plexus, stomped on his foot, and tossed him over her shoulder towards the wall. The masked ANBU flipped mid-air and landed in a crouch on the side of the wall.

She was wondering what why an ANBU would randomly attack her when she realized it could be a root agent. Had they figured out she was on the task force to take down Danzo? If so, how did they and did that mean that Haku was in danger? Misaki couldn't believe a root agent would be stupid or cocky enough to attack her in a frequently used hallway. Nonetheless Misaki tensed in preparation for a fight.

"Jaguar-channn that wasn't very nice. Here I was just trying to be a nice sempai and greet my kouhai! I've been waiting to do that ever since I realized you were undergoing ANBU training." Shisui's voice rang out from behind the animal mask.

Misaki let all the tension seep out of her. She bit back a giggle at the poutiness she could hear in Shisui's voice. Of course Shisui would think it was normal and hilarious to greet people in a dark empty corridor by trying to scare the crap out of them.

She hadn't even realized he was in ANBU.

Speaking of realizations, she had been surprised but at the same time not to find that Santa-sempai was the ANBU infiltration trainer during the duration of their four months of training. She had known that he specialized in infiltration but Misaki had never realized he was an ANBU operative specializing in espionage and infiltration not a jonin.

Now, more pieces of her first A-rank mission were beginning to make sense. During the trek from Konoha to near the border of Mountain country Misaki had noticed that Santa and Shisui had known each other relatively well.

Knowing what she knew now, she realized that she had not gone on the mission with two jonin and a chunin but with two ANBU and a jonin.

Misaki wasn't sure if Anri-san was ANBU too but she now knew that Shisui and Santa had both been ANBU. Judging from the amount of firepower Konoha provided for what was assigned as a B-rank mission, Misaki wondered if they possibly had suspicions that Orochimaru could be involved before finding out that he was.

After undergoing ANBU training herself, she realized that when Shisui had been extremely busy around five months prior to the mountain country mission that he had been undergoing ANBU training.

It also explained his impressive skill with his tanto. She remembered that she had seen him start to carry it around with him around the time he became extremely busy from sunup to sundown.

"Well, you should know better than to jump another ANBU operative in a dark corner. You should just be happy that I decided to elbow your gut and not punch something else." Misaki said with a slight smirk before asking, "What's your mask supposed to be anyways?"

Shisui puffed out his chest proudly, "A falcon."

Misaki could see why he got a falcon as his mask. Falcons were some of the fastest creatures on the planet and Shisui was probably one of the fastest ninja she had ever seen. He had improved leaps and bounds from where his speed was at during the Mountain mission and even then his speed was incredible.

Each of the recruits received a mask that had some kind of significance whether it was how the ANBU couldn't resist giving Itachi the weasel mask because of his name or how Masashi had received the eagle mask due to his keen eyesight and impressive range with his byakugan.

Or how judging from recruit 9's praying mantis mask and his preference for mid to long range attacks combined with the fact that it had felt like something intrinsic to his attacks was missing all throughout training it had been likely that he was an Aburame.

Misaki didn't know any of the other recruits well enough to tell what characteristics they shared with their given masks and codenames.

Misaki's mask and codename had significance as well. Like her, jaguars were strong, agile, and fast. They also were one of the few apex predator felines that enjoyed swimming and could hunt and take down prey as easily in water as they could on forest and open terrain.

Shisui and Misaki continued to chat and catch up until they exited the secret passageway and were back in the forest of death's tower. At the tower, both of them changed back into normal shinobi clothing and went their separate ways.

A few days after Shisui scared the crap out of her in the hallway, the end of the month of specialized training and team training was fast approaching. Soon all new recruits would start going on actual missions. They would continue to train with their team as they did missions but their official ANBU training period would be over.

Over the course of the past month, Misaki had grown to like her new squad. Despite her initial meeting with her captain and the whispered rumors surrounding him, she got along relatively well with him. They weren't friends by any stretch of imagination but they worked well together.

Misaki and Itachi had also met the other members of Team Ro. On the day that recruits were assigned teams only the captain and his or her second in command for each team was there.

Not including the two they met the first day and themselves, there were five other shinobi on team Ro. One of them was the new recruit, Mantis, who had been assigned to two squads. He would split his time between missions with Team Ro as well as another team. Misaki had been correct on her assumption that Recruit 9 who had received the mantis mask was an Aburame. Mantis was a fifteen year old named Aburame Muta.

Out of Team Ro, only two people were part of the task force with Itachi and Misaki. The two people part of the task force were Hound-taicho who had introduced himself as Hatake Kakashi and Cat, his second in command, a man who went by the codename Tenzo.

Through time and training, Misaki found that Kakashi-taicho was not only a brilliant shinobi combat wise but he also had genius analytical mind. He was the only other person she had met that could match Itachi in intellect. She knew she was extremely smart but genii like Kakashi-taicho and Itachi were on another level. Tenzo was an excellent, skilled ninjutsu and taijutsu user with highly proficient skills in tracking, stealth, and diversionary tactics. He was very intelligent as well but like Misaki not on the levels of Kakashi and Itachi.

Both definitely were shinobi that Misaki was glad would be in the task force assisting to bring down Danzo. Itachi and Misaki have always had excellent teamwork and they had improved their skills greatly but either of the aforementioned shinobi could defeat the two of them with ease. Itachi and Misaki both excellent shinobis but Kakashi and Tenzo were definitely much stronger. Misaki had yet to see another shinobi defeat Kakashi in combat and the only person that had defeated Tenzo was Kakashi.

The training regime and scenario exercises he devised for his team were strenuous and difficult. It was even more difficult than the four months of initial training Itachi and Misaki had gone through. But the results of his training regimen showed in the senior members of Team Ro. The training regimen was not just for new recruits. All Team Ro members did it when they weren't on missions.

ANBU members not on missions frequently sparred against other free ANBU as training. They would run through different scenarios as well as just all out battles. So far anytime they had done a squad versus squad battle, Team Ro had wiped out the opposing team. It was easy to see that they were some of the best and strongest ANBU members.

Prior to their first ANBU versus ANBU fight, Misaki could tell that some of the members of Team Ro doubted letting such young children as Itachi and herself join. The other members were much older. At Itachi was twelve and Misaki was eleven, most of their teammates were at least decade older than them. The people closest to them in age were Muta, Tenzo, and Kakashi-taicho. Tenzo was twenty and Kakashi-taicho was nineteen. However after Itachi and Misaki had held their own as a team of two against more experienced ANBU members, the doubts about their skill level were assuaged.

The day after the last day of training instead of meeting at the central meeting room in ANBU headquarters like they normally did, Kakashi-taicho had told Misaki to meet at one of the private training rooms in the back of headquarters.

When Misaki went into the private training room, she was surprised to not only see the Hokage but also an old friend. Seeing as only Tenzo and Kakashi-taicho were in the room, Misaki was waiting for Itachi to arrive when they shut the door and the Hokage activated a complex privacy seal.

"Jaguar, Weasel was not needed for today's meeting. Remove your masks, Jiraiya is privy to your guys' identities." The Hokage stated. The three ANBU removed their masks and patiently waited to hear their next order.

"I called the two of you and Jiraiya here today because you three are Konoha's most skilled fuinjutsu users. Tenzo-kun has a seal that is imperative for the task force to break. We have been finding and monitoring root ANBU members but without being able to remove this seal it is impossible to extract any information regarding Danzo's actions. Jiraiya has already figured out to remove part of the seal. He will continue working on deciphering the rest of the seal during his travels. I want Kakashi-kun and Misaki-chan to work together on unravelling the seal as well. Misaki-chan for security purposes you will have to leave whatever notes you make regarding the seal with Kakashi-kun. Please show them the seal Tenzo-kun."

Misaki temporarily ignored the implication that she would have to spend alone time with her reserved captain as she examined the fascinating seal on the underside of her teammate's tongue.

In her past life as an ancient rune and modern runes specialist, she enjoyed delving into complex runic arrangements and deciphering their meanings.

Since learning the art of fuinjutsu she had yet to see a seal this complex before aside from the privacy seal on the ceiling of the Hokage's office. Even her most complex creation so far the anti-sensor seal was only composed of two parts with both parts being three point seals.

There were three parts to the seal on Tenzo's tongue each with a varying degree of complexity. The first two point seal was a single layer two point seal as was the second seal adjacent to it. The tricky part was the main four point seal. That much Misaki could tell from looking at it.

Jiraiya watched as Misaki became absorbed in analyzing the seal. The first part of the seal would be easy enough to take off as its primary purpose was to conceal and keep people from tampering with the other two seals. Jiraiya had seen and created seals like that many times before. The second part was a paralysis seal and the third and most complex seal tied all three of the seals together.

The only reason he hadn't removed the first part yet was because he wanted to see if Misaki would be able to do so without his help. He knew Kakashi had seen and removed similar seals before but Misaki probably hadn't encountered a seal similar to this yet.

She was skilled enough to remove it and it would only hinder her progress in fuinjutsu if he gave her the answer instead of allowing her to figure it out herself. He had confidence in her abilities despite the fact she had only studied fuinjutsu for a little less than two years.

Even when he first started helping her with her fuinjutsu, Misaki had already made a lot of headway at finding seals' weak points and removing seals. Jiraiya attributed that particular skill to the years she had spent as Draco as an unspeakable that specialized in curse-breaking, warding, and anything pertaining to runes.

Runes and seals differed in how they were applied but the principles of composing and layering both were fairly similar in some aspects. The basic knowledge of runes that he had learned from taking it as an elective in Hogwarts while he was Sirius had greatly assisted in learning fuinjutsu. Jiraiya could only imagine what a master in that field would be able to do with enough time and research.

Misaki had already proven herself to be a gifted fuinjutsu prodigy in the making. The progress she had made without a formal teacher attested to that fact.

By the time he helped her by giving her some of his old fuinjutsu notebooks, she was already more advanced than he had been with the same amount of time and Hiruzen-sensei's help. The fact that she managed to bypass the rite of passage most fuinjutsu users experienced also pointed to her prowess.

It was a running joke back in Uzu back before it was destroyed and among fuinjutsu users everywhere that a person could tell if how far along a beginner fuinjutsu user was by the state of their eyebrows.

Those with scorched eyebrows or missing eyebrow hair were just at the beginning stages where they were experimenting with seals. Those with patchy eyebrows that were growing back in were about four to six months past the point where their seals exploded on them from time to time.

During the few days he had helped with her fuinjutsu after their initial meeting, Jiraiya had asked Misaki how many times she had burnt the hair off her eyebrows. She had given him a look of confusion before asking what the hell was he talking about and why would she ever burn the hair off of her eyebrows.

Even with the words of warning Choza had given her, most fuinjutsu beginners singed their eyebrows at least a few times as they improved their kanji and learnt how to replicate seals.

Hell even he, the great toad sage, had burnt his one of his eyebrows off. For a period of time in his youth, he rocked shaggy bangs to hide the fact that he had scorched off all of his hair on his left eyebrow. The bangs hadn't stopped his teammates from teasing him mercilessly or sensei's amused smile but it had prevented anyone else from knowing.

If it wouldn't arouse Danzo's interest, he would stay in Konoha to finish deciphering how to remove the cursed tongue eradication seals. But at this point the worst thing that could happen would be if Danzo caught onto the fact that they were attempting to disband root and discover evidence against him.

As Jiraiya had yet to spend more than a few days in Konoha a year in the past six years since Minato's death, his prolonged presence in Konoha would definitely peak Danzo's curiosity if not his paranoia.

Desperate people often committed horrendous things when pushed. Who knew if Danzo would destroy the evidence or what he would do if he thought there was a chance of him being caught and tried as a traitor. They would never be able to uncover any evidence if Danzo decided to thoroughly destroy it.

Danzo was a malignant growth that was detrimental to Konoha that needed to be pruned before he further damaged Konoha. But he was also a powerful and well-connected shinobi. Over the course of his tenure as an advisor to the Hokage he had made very powerful allies in Konoha and in the Daimyo's court. They wouldn't be able to act against him without sufficient evidence.

Not that Jiraiya was in the position to be casting stones at anyone in regards to teammates running amok but sensei had indulged his former teammate far too much by allowing him to create Root and had really let his old friend now frenemy run way out of control.

As soon as he thought about his erstwhile teammates, Jiraiya instantly stopped his thoughts from wandering in dangerous territory as thinking about them would only bring up bittersweet memories.

Seeing Misaki take her attention off of Tenzo's expanded seal for the first time since she started to examine it, he asked, "So Misaki-chan, have you figured out how to remove the first part?"

"Yes, I have. As there is a fail safe to prevent someone from being able to overload it with chakra and with the seal connected to Tenzo's tongue it would be dangerous to do so anyways, the best way to remove the seal is to separate the concealment part from the seal and remove it. Then transfer the tamper-proof part of the seal onto another surface."

Kakashi glanced at his new teammate appraisingly. It had been obvious from her intensive examination of Tenzo's seal and fascination with it that it was her first time running into such a seal.

While it wasn't an extremely complicated seal, to be able to figure out how to remove it within 10 minutes combined with the paralysis touch seals she used during the initial time they fought meant that his teammate was most likely a budding fuinjutsu prodigy.

Misaki's assignment to his team as well as the task force made much more sense now. He had understood Itachi's involvement as the task force's primary goal was to prevent Danzo from further antagonizing and ostracizing the Uchiha clan as well as find, capture, or eliminate Root agents.

It was true they needed ninjas they could trust as Root agents had infiltrated ANBU. It was also true that Misaki was definitely a highly skilled prodigy and skilled enough to be in ANBU.

However regardless of skill, including a non-involved eleven not even yet twelve year old and thrusting them into the darkness of ANBU hadn't seemed like something the Sandaime would willingly do. Seeing her brilliance with seals and knowing that she was very proficient with mystic palm jutsu, Kakashi could see why the Hokage had involved her.

Kakashi had figured out that she hadn't voluntarily joined ANBU before the new recruits finished their training.

She was quite hostile towards the Uchiha heir during the beginning of their training when by all reports they were best friends. She had hidden it well and had he not had his sense of smell, he might not have sensed it from her body language. But with his keen sense of smell he picked up on the fact that she was furious at Itachi. He just hadn't known why.

Months later the pieces fell into place. Kakashi had done reconnaissance on her after seeing her trailing Naruto. He discretely inquired about her mission performance and personality. Most if not all of her former mission partners told him that she was an intelligent and nice kunoichi that tried to find peaceful solutions and avoid killing when possible.

Between that, when he confronted her in the headquarters, and his other recon on her two things became obvious. First that her first priority was her brother and second that she most likely joined ANBU to help her teammate and best friend. As her younger brother's sole caretaker and family if not for her teammate needing her help, Kakashi doubted that she would've joined ANBU.

Jiraiya and Kakashi watched as Misaki successfully removed the first part of the seal from Tenzo's tongue. Now with the first part gone, they could expand and investigate the other two parts of the seal. For the next hour, they each wrote down the details of Tenzo's seal onto a blank scroll before Jiraiya said his goodbyes and left Konoha.

A few days after the meeting with Jiraiya, Team Ro was assigned their first mission. Kirigakure shinobi had been found deep in Fire country territory and were trying to make their escape back to Water country. They were sent to find and eliminate any threats.

The mission really highlighted the difference between chunin and ANBU. Aside from very intense training and an in-depth psych evaluation; Misaki hadn't felt any differences between to the two so far. She had known that ANBU often undertook the most grueling and difficult missions but this was the first mission where either Misaki or Itachi had been flat out told to eliminate any enemy shinobi.

Prior to this mission, during most of their missions the main objective was either to protect the clients or capture the enemy not to kill. The fact that their primary objective was to eliminate hostiles emphasized the difference between the missions they had done as chunin and the darker missions that Itachi and Misaki would be forced to undertake as ANBU operatives.

The morning of the start of the mission they took off for the border at a rapid pace. Upon reaching the last place where the Kiri shinobi had been spotted, Kakashi-taicho had summoned Pakkun and they began hunting down the Kiri ninja. Upon finding the Kiri ninja, they coldly and efficiently cut down the entire squad leaving no survivors and no evidence before returning to Konoha.

During the fight against the Kiri ninja, Misaki had noticed how more skilled both she and Itachi had become through ANBU training. Their combatants were two jonin and two chunin. Before one of the jonin even realized they were there, Kakashi-taicho had killed him. Between Kakashi-taicho, Tenzo, herself, and Itachi the other three Kiri ninja had been utterly decimated. The fight was over in minutes.

Six months ago, Misaki had been relieved that she and Itachi had yet to be assigned on a search and destroy mission with Shogo. It was ironic that now a few months later as ANBU they had gone on one without him and would most likely be undertaking a bunch of those kinds of missions. Probably even more than Shogo would as a tracker.

Though both she and Itachi had been busy during ANBU training, they had both made time to train and hangout with Shogo and Choza-sensei from time to time. They weren't able to see them very often but they still made an effort to not drift away from them. Despite their best efforts, it was still different. They no longer saw them every day as they had as genin or even once every week as they had as chunin.

Although Shogo didn't know they joined ANBU, Choza-sensei had known. He had expressed concern for Itachi and Misaki's wellbeing. He told them if they ever needed someone to talk to that his door would always been open for them.

Misaki had been touched by Choza-sensei's concern. But even if she had wanted to drop out of ANBU training, she knew she wouldn't be able to live with herself knowing that her best friend and teammate had reached out to her for help and she left him hanging in the wind.

Misaki wasn't as close to Itachi's family as she was the Inuzukas but she liked and respected his parents, was good friends with Shisui, and found Sasuke adorable even though he and Haku didn't exactly get along. The first time Haku and Sasuke had met, they got into a mini fight about whose sibling was better.

In the short amount of time Itachi and Misaki had left them in the living room to get snacks from the kitchen for everyone, they went from chatting amicably to pouting and sitting in silence. Despite Itachi and Misaki's best efforts, neither of their siblings had gotten over the little tiff.

Similarly, she could tell that Itachi had also been moved by Choza-sensei's words but like Misaki he obviously didn't have a choice. Ever since she had been briefed by the Hokage, Itachi had opened up more about the situation and his concerns regarding his clan to her.

Although the situation was getting better hearing about it secondhand was horrifying enough and she wasn't even actually 11, so she couldn't even imagine how he felt experiencing it firsthand at the young age of 12.

The missions following their first mission were a variety of tracking, surveillance, and elimination missions. They had yet to undertake an actual assassination mission but Misaki knew it was only a matter of time. Kakashi-taicho was rumored to be one of the best ANBU assassins.

Aside from that fact with hers and Itachi's speed, overall skillset, and kekkei genkai they were well suited for such missions. Itachi's sharingan allowed him to place complex genjutsus on anyone that even made brief contact with him and Misaki's ice release allowed her to slip in and out of places easily. She could create an ice mirror outside of whatever building or area and then slip into it after completing her mission.

Through experimentation, Misaki had found that she could bring a passenger along with her through her ice mirrors as long as she kept contact with them. However her passengers wouldn't be unaffected by the cold so unlike her they could not stay indefinitely in the ice mirrors. If in the pocket dimension for too long they would be subject to frostbite, the onset of hypothermia, and eventually death.

Three months after their first mission and a day before Misaki's 12th birthday, she received the mission that she had dreaded getting ever since she became a kunoichi.

Konoha had received intel that for the first time in several years that Kirigakure's cypher division would be on the outskirts of water country. They would be on Shikogawa near Suzu for a few days. The codes they were carrying would be invaluable to Konoha.

The mission was to discretely find the cypher division, have the interrogator in the squad get the information from them, and then leave water country with the codes as fast as possible. Konoha was sending an interrogator named Ibiki Morino, Kakashi-taicho, Itachi, and Misaki.

Misaki had never wanted to return that accursed place again let alone spend her 12th birthday there but she had been selected for the mission due to her knowledge of water country. Her knowledge would help their teammates stand out less as foreigners. Also her kekkei genkai would enable her to turn any of the water jutsus that the Kiri ninja were sure to use against them.

On a bleak and dreary November morning, Team Ro and Ibiki took off for the fire country border. They reached the southern-most border at nightfall and made camp. The next morning they crossed into the Land of Woods and made their way to the tip of the peninsula.

They secured passage on a boat into water country under the guise of a blacksmith with his two kids and a bodyguard. Ibiki's cover was the blacksmith and Kakashi-taicho's cover was the bodyguard.

In the early afternoon they arrived in Suzu and immediately began hunting for the cypher division. Time was of the essence. They had a short period of time to locate the cypher division as they had been given strict orders to not go further into Water country. As Water was a nation comprised of many islands, the further they went into Water the more difficult it was to leave.

They left the city and started going towards the area where the cypher division was rumored to be. Once they left the city, with the exception of Ibiki they had changed back into their ANBU outfits and masks.

With Kakashi-taicho's excellent tracking skills and nose, they found the cypher division in less than two hours. He tracked them to a clearing in the woods to the far north of Suzu. As they crouched hidden in the trees a short distance away, he signaled that there were a total of seven shinobi in the clearing. Six cypher division shinobis and one bodyguard.

Kakashi, Itachi, and Misaki burst into the clearing immediately knocking out three of the cypher division shinobis leaving four ninjas remaining. Kakashi brought the shinobi he knocked unconscious back to Ibiki.

Itachi stood guard over Ibiki as he took one of the unconscious shinobi, woke him up, and started interrogating him while Misaki and Kakashi prepared to fight the remaining three shinobis and one kunoichi.

"Heh so Konoha sent their top ANBU interrogator after our cypher codes, I didn't realize that Konoha placed Kiri at that high of importance." The only non-cypher division shinobi in the clearing bit out derisively.

He shunshined to Ibiki and slit the throat of the cypher division member that was being interrogated before he returned to the other members of his team. Before Kakashi, Itachi, or Misaki could stop him he then killed the other three unconscious cypher division members and two out of the four conscious ones. Now only one shinobi and the kunoichi were left. He had stabbed his teammates or slit their throats with no hesitation.

Misaki was horrified by how easily he cut down his teammates. What was even more horrifying is how after seeing the rest of their team be cut down by their bodyguard neither of the two remaining cypher division shinobi made any attempt to flee. They were either paralyzed with horror or not fazed by their teammate's actions. Misaki couldn't tell.

Kakashi intercepted the shark-like shinobi's strike as Misaki attempted to whisk the two cypher division members away. However instead of coming peacefully, they attempted to fight her off giving the tall blue shinobi the opportunity to kill the shinobi only leaving the kunoichi. The shinobi was immensely fast. Misaki estimated that he was at least on par with Gai-sempai's speed if not faster.

"Why Kisame?" The remaining somewhat familiar looking kunoichi asked horrified by his actions.

Misaki didn't know why but upon seeing the brown hair and dark eyed teenaged kunoichi, she had seemed familiar.

"Sorry, Miru. Fuguki-shishou ordered for me to prevent the intel from being leaked at all costs." Kisame said before he swung. Misaki's eyes widened at hearing the kunoichi's name and instead of flesh Kisame sword clanged against metal as Misaki blocked his strike with her katana before leaping away.

As Misaki leapt away after blocking his strike, Kakashi fired a fire release great fireball towards the Kiri ninja which Itachi strengthened with a wind release great breakthrough. Their combination attack caused Kisame to leap backward to avoid the powerful flames as he countered with an enormous water release great waterfall justu. The resulting collision of the colossal torrent of water and the fiery inferno resulted in an explosion of dense and steamy mist that spread throughout the clearing.

Misaki immediately used a strong wind jutsu to clear out the mist. Though she could've left the mist to use for her kekkei genkai, she wasn't about to leave the Mist shinobi with a huge advantage like that. As Konoha ninjas, she and her team were nowhere near the ability of a Mist shinobi's ability to fight obscured by mist. Besides she didn't want to let Kiri know there was a Yuki clan member in Konoha unless it was absolutely necessary.

When the mist cleared, the Konoha ninjas saw that Miru had made her way to Kisame's side.

"I understand Kisame. I don't hate you. It's a wretched path that you've been forced to take." Miru said resigned as she let Kisame run her through with his blade.

After slaying the last member of the cypher division Kisame rapidly took off and they made no effort to follow. It would be pointless to chase him down. Not only would a fight with him alert more people to their presence but they no longer had anyone to interrogate the codes from.

Instead they made their way to the shore and started running across the ocean back towards the land of woods. Though they took the boat to Suzu it was less risky to run back across the ocean than to reenter Suzu and attempt to gain passage on a boat.

As they ran, Misaki's thoughts were drawn to the New Year's Festival she had attended with her family a few weeks before her mother's murder. The brown haired and dark-eyed kunoichi had seemed familiar but it wasn't until Kisame had said her name that Misaki realized why she seemed familiar.

During the New Year's Festival, a festival goer had knocked into Haku and his taiyaki was about to fall onto the ground when a young kunoichi caught the treat.

Upon Misaki and Haku's thanks she introduced herself as Oribe Miru and played a few games with them before leaving. She was a kind person who had caught a goldfish for Haku and even displayed a few shinobi tricks upon request as a treat for Misaki and Haku before leaving.

After the events which caused Haku and Misaki to flee Water country and make their way to Konoha, Misaki had not thought about that kind kunoichi until running into her just now. She had not expected to run into someone she had known during her time living in Water country during this mission.

As they made their way towards the Fire country border, Misaki couldn't stop herself from thinking about memories and people from Taku. Memories of her beloved mother, Hikari-oba, that man, and family friends.

When that man had ratted out Haku, Hikari-oba had been a few months away from giving birth to her son.

Misaki didn't even know how Hikari-oba would've taken her parents' death. Would she have hated her mother for being a kekkei genkai user and killing six villagers in self-defense? Or would she have hated Yoshirou for turning on his family and murdering her childhood best friend. Hikari-oba had always preached the importance of family but so had Yoshirou and look at how that turned out.

Perhaps in a way it was better that Misaki didn't know. Her childhood was filled with many precious memories of Hikari-oba and if she had despised her mother, Haku, and Misaki because of something they couldn't control it would irrevocably taint her memories of Hikari-oba.

Once they crossed back into Fire country and made camp, Itachi walked over to where Misaki was pensively staring at the skies and sat down next to her.

"I know it's probably the worst birthday you've had but happy twelfth birthday Misaki." Itachi said as he handed a box of strawberry pocky. He had already given her a gift during the early birthday party that they had prior to leaving for the mission.

Misaki thanked him for the pocky as she offered Itachi some of it.

"You recognized that kunoichi back in Suzu, didn't you? Do you want to talk about it?" Itachi quietly asked.

Misaki shook her head in response. Talking about it wouldn't help any. It wasn't like she even knew that kunoichi that well to be overly disturbed by her death.

It was just once upon a time she was a kind teenager who had stopped to help two children and play with them. Misaki had been unhappy to see her cut down by her teammate. She was too kind for a fate like that.

If anything seeing that made Misaki relieved that she made the decision not to take their savior's offer back in Suzu so many years ago. Misaki had the last watch so she tried to push out thoughts of her life on Taku as she drifted into a light sleep.

In what felt like a blink of an eye, Kakashi-taicho woke her up for her watch and a few hours later they headed back to Konoha.

Thankfully after the failed mission in Water country, Misaki had yet to be assigned to another mission there. She knew that she would not be able to avoid being sent to Water country but hopefully it wouldn't be any time soon.

Misaki and Kakashi had deciphered how to remove the second part of the seal and were working on the third part. At first, neither of them had wanted to use their apartment to work on the seal. But Misaki absolutely refused to use hers because of Haku's presence in the apartment.

The further removed Haku was from anything to do with the task force the better. Eventually they had decided on a compromise. As Kakashi had liked her cooking when he had tried it during a mission, they used Kakashi's apartment to study Tenzo's seal and Misaki provided food.

The first time she followed Kakashi to his apartment, her jaw dropped when she realized that he lived in the same apartment complex only his apartment was a floor above and one to the left of her apartment. In the five years of in Konoha she had yet to see him in the apartment complex once.

From what she had seen of Kakashi's apartment it was minimalistic and impersonal compared to hers and Haku's apartment. His living room had a bookshelf with a bunch of books and scrolls, a dining room table with chairs, a three seater couch, two armchairs, and that was it. There were no pictures or anything that hinted to the inhabitant of the apartment or their hobbies aside from the prolific amount of Jiraiya's raunchy novels littering his bookshelf.

Other than working on the seal, the Hokage hadn't assigned her to do anything else regarding the task force. There was little that she could do other than keep an eye out for possible root agents until they managed to remove the tri-layered four point seal from Tenzo's tongue.

A month and a half after the mission in Water country, Misaki met Danzo for the second time. It was the first time as ANBU that she had been assigned a mission other than from the Hokage. Though the Hokage was present at the mission briefing, Danzo assigned Kakashi, Itachi, and Misaki the mission.

Just as the first time she had seen him, Danzo's presence set all her instincts on high alert especially knowing all the information she now knew about him. A few months after she had joined the academy he had approached her after school one day with the offer to join his organization.

Danzo had promised that her brother, Haku, would never want for anything and that joining his organization would allow her to utilize her genius and talents for the benefit of Konoha. He had told her, "The core purpose of this group was to be unseen ones who support the great tree of Konoha from the depths of the earth."

Misaki might not have known much about ninjas at that point but she had already known that she didn't want to join a group that seemed like some kind of off the books black ops group. She had already been worrying about whether she would be able to deal with the moral issues that would pop up during her career as a ninja. Misaki didn't want to have to worry about what members of a black ops group would be asked to do.

When she had met Jiraiya, Misaki told him about Danzo's attempted recruitment of her. He told her that she was lucky she didn't accept his invitation. He then told her about the emotional conditioning that Danzo forced his recruits to undergo as well as the fact that he placed seals on their tongue to prevent them from spilling any information about Root.

When he had mentioned that it was unsanctioned by the Hokage, Misaki had asked why the Hokage hadn't disbanded the organization. To which Jiraiya had responded that the Hokage was unable to disband the group despite his best efforts due to the fact that no root agent had turned or had turned and survived long enough to give incriminating evidence against Danzo.

Truthfully she had been surprised to find out that Tenzo was an ex-root ANBU operative. Hopefully once they learned how to remove the seal, it would give them the edge they needed to shut down Root once and for all as well as arrest Danzo for his treasonous actions.

The mission they were being assigned by Danzo was to watch over the exchange of information between a team from Konohagakure consisting of Gai, Maruboshi Kosuke, and two other shinobi and the Prajna group of Land of Woods.

Konoha was moving for a potential alliance with the land of Woods and each country had agreed to trade a special scroll to cement the alliance. However, Team Ro was informed before leaving that it was highly likely that the Prajna group was attempting to betray Konoha and make off with the scroll.

If they did decide to betray Konoha it would be the first time that Misaki or Itachi would be facing other ANBU in actual combat. Sure they had sparred against their fellow new recruits and their ANBU-sempais but sparring was far different from aiming to kill. While they were Land of Woods ANBU and the Land of Woods wasn't one of the five major elemental countries, ANBU was still ANBU.

They would be escorting a group of Konoha ninjas to the meeting which was going to take place on the border of Fire Country and the Land of Woods. Team Ro's orders were to stay hidden unless the Prajna group decided to betray Konoha in which case they were ordered to eliminate all hostiles.

Unlike the mission in Water Country, time was not of the essence so the journey itself took two days. The group of Konoha ninjas sent to make the trade wouldn't have been able to keep up with Team Ro's speed and it was more important to be well rested anyways.

Prior to the start of the meeting Team Ro had split up with one member hidden in each corner. Misaki had also placed her anti-sensor seals on each position that a Team Ro member occupied.

Itachi was in the south-most corner, Misaki in the west, and Kakashi-taicho in the east. As Kakashi-taicho had the most advanced concealment skills; he was the closest to where the Prajna group would enter the clearing.

The meeting itself seemed to be going well but since entering the clearing it was obvious to all members of team Ro that the Prajna ANBUs were very tense. They could be tense just because of nervousness but nervousness could also be a bad sign. The group was well trained but one of its obviously newer members kept shifting slightly and expressing other slight signs of anxiety.

Kosuke handed over the scroll to the captain of the Prajna group and that was when all hell broke loose.

Instead of handing over the scroll they were supposed to give to Konoha, the leader of the four ANBU launched himself at Kosuke with a sweeping motion of his katana while the other members of his team began an onslaught against the other Konoha ninjas.

Itachi blocked his katana's strike with his own katana as Gai whisked his teammates off to safety and Misaki and Kakashi burst from their hiding spots and ambushed their opponents. Blood splattered everywhere as the member of the Prajna group who had been fidgeting was killed instantly by the explosive seal Misaki had placed on his neck when she ambushed him.

Misaki winced at the sight before she dodged a strike from one of the other ANBU. She had never actually used a touch explosive seal on anyone before. Kakashi-taicho had engaged the captain of the Prajna group in a furious taijutsu and ninjutsu battle leaving the other two ANBU for Misaki and Itachi.

Even though they were both ANBU captains there was an obvious skill difference between the Prajna captain and Kakashi-taicho. He couldn't dodge all of Kakashi's taijutsu and kenjutsu attacks let alone the rapid pace at which he was churning out ninjutsu.

Misaki could definitely see why Kakashi-taicho was on par or stronger than Gai-sempai. Despite being an ANBU captain, that guy didn't stand a chance against Kakashi's superior skill. Although Misaki could've watched the deadly grace inherent in all of Kakashi's movements and attacks all day, she turned her attention to the two remaining ANBU.

Itachi took on the other ANBU member leaving the last for Misaki. Her opponent used earth release rock collapse jutsu shattering the cliff and raining sharp fragments of rock onto both of them. However with their speed, they were able to dodge or avoid all of the falling rock fragments.

As soon as they were both clear of the falling debris, Misaki rapidly did the hand seals and pumped triple the normal amount of chakra into wind release great breakthrough. She aimed her wind jutsu at the falling debris launching it towards her opponent forcing him to shunshin out of the way as they slammed into the spot he previously was.

Unfortunately for their opponent, Itachi was waiting with his katana in the area their opponent shunshined to. Itachi and Misaki switched opponents as Itachi attacked her opponent with his skilled kenjutsu and genjutsu. Misaki drew her katana and began attacking his opponent with a combination of kenjutsu and taijutsu.

Between Itachi's onslaught with his seamless genjutsu and kenjutsu strikes and Misaki's punishing kicks and slashes from her katana, both of the ANBU was barely able to retaliate. One of them used a few more earth release rock collapse jutsus in an effort to push Misaki and Itachi back. But after seeing the jutsu the first time, Misaki and Itachi were both well prepared and they used their speed to evade the failing debris or wind jutsus to reflect the debris back at their opponent.

Ultimately both of the ANBU were forced on the defensive and scarcely able to dodge their assault. As he dodged a slash from Itachi's katana, Itachi utilized a complex genjutsu against their opponent. Despite the lack of nearby water sources, when she saw Itachi's opponent under his genjutsu Misaki sent a massive water release water dragon bullet towards him.

With the time that Itachi's opponent took to dispel the complex genjutsu Itachi used, he was unable to dodge the roaring current of water that harshly slammed him into the side of the cliff face. Before he could recover, Itachi stabbed him through left side of his chest killing him.

One opponent down, Itachi and Misaki launched a coordinated assault against the remaining ANBU. He was skilled in kenjutsu but slower than both Misaki and Itachi which ended up being his downfall. Despite his skill in kenjutsu against two faster opponents, he had no chance. Anytime he retreated from either Misaki or Itachi's attack the other one was waiting at the location that he retreated to. This forced him to constantly be on the run. As he dodged a fire release great fireball jutsu from Itachi, Misaki closed the distance between them and placed a paralysis touch seal on his exposed hand. The ANBU was unable to break out of the paralysis in time to dodge a blow from Itachi's katana that severed his head from his body.

Itachi flicked the blood off of his katana before sliding it back into its sheathe as Misaki sealed their opponent's head and decapitated body and his teammates body into body scrolls.

By the time Itachi and Misaki finished off their opponent, Kakashi had already made quick work of the ANBU captain before observing the end of Misaki and Itachi's fight. The only survivors among the wreckage of trees and rocks of various sizes scattered around the clearing were the Konoha ninja and Team Ro.

While they made their way back to Konoha, Misaki mused about how much stronger she and Itachi had become since they underwent ANBU training and became ANBU operatives.

Nine months ago prior to joining ANBU, even with their excellent teamwork they would not have been able to take out that ANBU. In fact they wouldn't have even been able to keep up with his speed.

The grueling five months of training and the past four months of missions and training had greatly honed both of their skills. They had gone from being beginning kenjutsu users to quite proficient at kenjutsu. As Misaki predicted Itachi had more talent in kenjutsu and was more skilled in kenjutsu than her. While his kenjutsu skills were superior, Misaki's were nothing to scoff at.

Speed-wise, both Itachi and Misaki were almost able to keep up with his cousin Shisui who was one of the fastest ANBU operatives with Misaki being slightly faster than Itachi. Between Shisui's speed and skill at shunshin, he was renowed as Shunshin no Shisui and as one of the fastest shinobi in Konoha's ninja force. There was still a difference between their speeds but it was no longer the vast gap it had been before they joined ANBU.

Itachi generally didn't rely solely on ninjutsu as he had low chakra reserves. Despite his low chakra reserves his excellent chakra control helped offset that somewhat. Itachi had added many jutsus to his repertoire of ninjutsu from training and also copying jutsus with his sharingan. He also had learned to utilize water release bumping up the number of elemental ninjutsu types he could use to three. In the past nine months he had improved on his already excellent skill in fire and wind natured jutsu. He had also become skilled enough to perform various water jutsus without an already existing water source.

Ninjutsu wasn't even Itachi's specialty. From the time they were genin, Itachi specialized in genjutsu typically ones performed with his sharingan. His genjutsu, which required very little chakra, had become so seamless that even targets that were prepared for genjutsu sometimes didn't even realize they had fallen prey to him before it was too late.

While Misaki was nowhere near as talented as Itachi in genjutsu, she was able to perform some complex genjutsus. With her extremely precise chakra control Misaki was able to recognize and dispel genjutsus almost instantaneously which was useful in spars against Shisui or Itachi. Both of them were highly skilled genjutsu users.

All-in-all genjutsu wasn't her weapon of choice, ninjutsu or taijutsu was. Kakashi-taicho had taught both her and Itachi many different ninjutsus during training. By far one of the most useful techniques he had taught them was the water clone jutsu. Both of them had already been taught the shadow clone jutsu from Choza-sensei, but the water clone jutsu was very useful for two water ninjutsu users.

Not only would the clone be able to attack and defend but once it was defeated they could use the water for other jutsus. Both Itachi and Misaki were skilled enough to be able to use water jutsus without a nearby water source but having one made things easier.

Like Itachi, Misaki had also added many jutsus to her repertoire. Through her own training and Kakashi's tutelage she now knew many different wind and water jutsus. With her very large chakra pool, Misaki was a formidable ninjutsu user. However unlike Itachi, she hadn't mastered the use of another element but she had become proficient with a few earth jutsu.

While she hadn't mastered the usage of earth natured jutsus, Misaki had improved her skill with ice release immensely. If she wanted to, she could cover an entire clearing in ice within a few seconds or raise multiple ice mirrors simultaneously.

Her mastery over ice release as well as her precise chakra control enabled her to use minimal chakra to not only create ice and water but minimal chakra to control her kekkei genkai. Misaki had tried to avoid using her kekkei genkai in missions because she hadn't wanted word about it to get out. So she had mostly been sticking to ninjutsu, kenjutsu, and taijutsu during missions.

She still had yet to defeat Gai in an all-out taijutsu fight but among the group of recruits that had joined ANBU together; she was the most skilled taijutsu user even including Itachi.

Her speed, reflexes, and agility combined with her skill at placing touch seals made her taijutsu extremely deadly. All Misaki needed was a split second to place a seal on exposed skin. She preferred to utilize paralysis touch seals over her explosive seals as bone fragments, blood, and tissue were disgusting to be covered in but if forced into a corner she could use her explosive touch seals to change the tide of any fight.

Between ANBU training, missions, friends, working on breaking Tenzo's seal, and Haku Misaki had not had much time to further her studies in fuinjutsu. She was so busy she had even missed Haku's 9th birthday due to a mission that was supposed to last a few days but ended up lasting an entire week.

Hell, as it was she barely had enough time to see her friends a couple times a month if that. Not only was she busy but they were as well. It was hard to find time where they were all free to hangout.

Shogo had finally won over Natsumi a few months ago so between that, his missions, and training he didn't have much free time either. On top of dating Shogo, Natsumi also was swamped at the hospital. She had become a good medical-nin that was often in high demand.

Taka was pretty busy with missions like Itachi and Misaki. Daiki had begun dating Masashi's female teammate Aburame Keiko and started an apprenticeship under a kenjutsu master to further his talent in kenjutsu.

Taro and his teammates, Nara Eiichi and Ito Haruka, had been on border patrol so they hadn't even been in Konoha for the past month.

Hana had the more time than all of her other friends as she was in her last year of the academy. However she had class in the morning and afternoon which was when Misaki was generally free. With Misaki's lack of free time, she spent as much time as she could with Haku once he was done with the academy for the day. She still was able to see Hana more than most of her other friends though.

Misaki also saw Masashi from time to time as he was also in ANBU but he was more of a friendly acquaintance than an actual friend. It wasn't like they didn't get along but they didn't exactly click either.

She saw Itachi and Shisui far more often than her other friends but Misaki didn't really count that as hanging out with a friend as they mostly saw each other during missions. Going to the movies, other leisure activities, or training was hanging out with a friend, not cutting down targets and running other black ops missions.

As the year drew to a close and Misaki published her third book, she hoped that she, Jiraiya, or Kakashi would be able to crack the final part of the cursed tongue eradication seal soon.

Although Itachi had said that things within the clan had be getting better since root agents stopped patrolling the Uchiha clan compound, they still didn't know why Danzo was attempting to ostracize the Uchiha clan nor what lengths he would go to achieve his goals. The sooner the task force was able to stop Danzo the better it would be for everyone.


	18. Denouement of Root

A/N: I know I said I probably wouldn't do other pov's regarding the task force but I changed my mind.

To Shadow of God, thank you for the review. I have an idea of where I'm going to take Kabuto that fits in well with the story. After reading your review I went back and read through my fight scenes. I hadn't realized I had made that a trend nor did I want to make that a trend so I'll rectify that in the coming chapters. I've been trying not to make Misaki seem too overpowered. There isn't a huge power difference between the two but Itachi is stronger than Misaki. Where Itachi is stronger than Misaki, she is faster and has more chakra at her disposal. Thanks for the advice on Kabuto. I realized that the whole Nono, Orochimaru, and Danzo thing happened much earlier than I thought as it happened prior to the whole Uchiha clan massacre. I'm still planning on changing Kabuto but the changes may not be apparent at first. I think you'll like what I've decided to do with his character.

To Lady Kira, thanks for another review! I definitely have a few things planned for the whole awkward puberty phase :D and no I'm not planning on having them be able to actually use runes. If they could, Jiraiya probably would've already adapted some runes into his fighting style or repertoire. Misaki's expertise in runes will assist her in mastering sealing and creating new seals though.

To Shae Vizla, thanks for the review! I'm glad that you liked the chapter. Similar to how Itachi was extremely busy in the canon with ANBU and the coup d'etat, Misaki doesn't have a lot of time as well. I didn't think her publishing her second book would be something that important with everything that is going on so I didn't mention it. She published it during the winter of the previous year. I mentioned the third book because like you said Sirius/Jiraiya is a main character in it. Unfortunately, Jiraiya isn't going to be able to spend much time with Naruto until he's a genin but once he is I plan on veering from the canon in regards to the amount of time spent with him. I'm planning on showing how popular the series is and answering your question regarding if Haku gave the books to read to Naruto in the coming chapters.

To Soul Painted Black, thanks for the reviews!

To lilnudger82, thank you for the review. Out of all the people in her life, Misaki sees Haku the most and makes every available attempt to see him. It's not that they hardly ever see each other; it's just not as much time as they used to be able to spend with each other. Unfortunately, between the task force and missions Misaki is very busy.

To Pri-chan 1410, thanks for the review :) They will be dealing with Danzo soon though I can't promise that they will be able to avoid tragedy. I also disliked Danzo in the canon; he was just such an asshole. Glad that you liked the interaction between Misaki and Shisui.

To sweetandsimple1, thanks for the review and no problem :) also thank you for pointing that out to me. You're right, the wording is way out of character for him so I went back and revised it.

To 4everfictional, thank you for all the great reviews! I'm sure that certain medical-nin are talented enough to do that if they put their mind to it but Misaki isn't going to change her physical sex. They only found out that she was pregnant during the fifth month. Birth works the same in my story as it does in real life. I decided to make Inoichi the proctor as he is an skilled and more senior member of T&I and probably mentored Ibiki in some capacity so in my fic Ibiki's test is a version of the original that Inoichi gave. I'm glad that you enjoyed the omake and the chapters of my story :)

To jaz7, thank you for the review.

* * *

 **Chapter 18: Denouement of Root**

At the end of April eight months after the initial meeting regarding the cursed tongue eradication seal, Jiraiya briefly returned to Konoha with the solution. He had discovered the weak point of the seal and how to remove it. Jiraiya had given the Hokage the scroll with all his notes regarding the cursed tongue eradication seal before he started writing out the many kanji that would be needed to remove the seal from Tenzo's mouth.

Five hours of rapid paced writing later, Tenzo was finally free of the seal that had branded him since he had escaped from Orochimaru's lab and was taken in by Danzo. At the time, he had not realized he had escaped one mad man only to fall into the clutches of another.

After being able to only think badly of Danzo and not be able to voice it for so many years, it was extremely liberating to be able to call Danzo a rat bastard and all manners of curse words aloud. A freedom which Tenzo excised many times as he made sure the cursed seal was truly gone. Tenzo was not usually a man that engaged in pointless profanity but in Danzo's case he made an exception.

Danzo had lured him into Root with promises of how many people his abilities could help, which was why he had endured the harsh training and strove to become the best. Anytime he had felt like giving up, the thought of how many people he would be able to help with his strength had kept him going.

Soon after Kakashi and the Sandaime had saved him from Danzo's wrath, he learned that he could've saved the village during the Kyuubi attack and possibly even the Yondaime's life. The knowledge had deeply upset him. Knowing that he could've prevented such a tragedy was something that had bothered Tenzo every October 10th and every time he passed the numerous orphanages that had to be built to house all the newly orphaned children after the Kyuubi attack.

Danzo had purposely kept his abilities a secret. A decision on Danzo's part that resulted in Konoha being torn asunder and many families losing precious loved ones. Danzo sacrificed countless, innocent lives in order to vie for the Hokage position.

Once Tenzo learned of Danzo's treachery, he had sworn to himself that if he ever had the opportunity to assist in taking down the power-hungry, inhuman asshole that he would seize it wholeheartedly. With his cursed tongue seal removed, Tenzo fulfilled his vow with relish as he told the Hokage, Shikaku, Inoichi, and a few other members of the task force everything he knew about root over the course of three days.

After dismissing Tenzo and the others at the end of the last day of debriefing, Hiruzen massaged his temples in a vain attempt to get rid of the migraine that had bothered him since the first day of debriefing. After a few futile minutes, Hiruzen gave up and withdrew a bottle of sake from the stash he kept in the false bottom of a drawer in his desk.

When Hiruzen became Hokage, he had known that Danzo was disappointed by the fact that he had become Hokage instead of him. But he should have never indulged Danzo and sanctioned the creation of Root. Even the information that Tenzo-kun had shared about Danzo's activities disturbed him and Hiruzen knew that it wasn't even the tip of the iceberg. Despite Tenzo being Danzo's favorite, he knew that Danzo most likely kept knowledge of his activities to the agents that completed the missions and himself.

Finding out that Danzo had illicit dealings with Orochimaru in the years prior to Orochimaru's defection made Hiruzen wary of what they would find when they stormed the Root stronghold. God only knew how much of Orochimaru's actions that Danzo had been aware of or the depths of depravity that Danzo had sunk to.

Hiruzen drank saucer after saucer of sake as he drowned himself in past memories of better times. He fondly recalled when they were all close teammates under Tobirama-sensei tutelage, when they had each other's backs mission after mission, or when they would make camp under the stars and listen in wonder as Tobirama-sensei told them stories from the warring clans era. Hiruzen thought of the multitude of memories where they were good friends striving to protect their precious village and when their greatest enemies were outside of Konoha's borders not within.

Like him, Danzo prioritized the safety of Konoha over everything. The only difference was what they both thought was best for the village. While Hiruzen cherished every single leaf that made its home in Konoha and everything that embodied the will of fire, Danzo was an extremist that believed that the interests of the village superseded everything else and that the ends justified the means.

As he neared the end of his third bottle, he wondered what Hashirama-sensei and Tobirama-sensei would think everything and wished that things had not gone so astray. It physically pained Hiruzen to play a part in the demise of a man that had once been like a brother. They had been so close that Danzo was even the godfather of his first son. The older they grew, the more their paths diverged. If only Danzo had not turned from a trusted ally and close friend to a ruthless adversary.

Finishing the last of the third bottle, he resolved that tonight he would grieve for his misguided former best friend and tomorrow he would begin to set the plans to disband Root and capture Danzo in motion. Despite their past Hiruzen knew Danzo would show no mercy; Danzo's attempted assassination of him through Kakashi a few years ago had proved that to him.

He knew he could not afford to show any mercy especially with Danzo irrationally ostracizing one of Konoha's founding clans. This farce had gone on long enough. Danzo was a danger to all of Konoha and the will of fire.

Three months of meticulous planning later, Hiruzen put Konohamaru in the care of trusted ANBU and donned his battle gear. On a night like this, he wished that Asuma was still in Konoha. Though he trusted the ANBU, he would feel better knowing he left his precious grandson with his son.

After three months of tracking each known Root agent, discovering even more Root agents, and discerning the weak points of Root Headquarters tonight was the night. Tonight the task force and other trusted ANBU members would breach Root's underground facility and apprehend Danzo.

All 26 ninjas involved in the raid against Danzo would be connected via tactical radio earpieces. Four ANBU would guard each of three entrances to the underground facility. There was an entrance to the southeast that ended beyond the city walls, one entrance that ended at the base of the Hokage Mountain, and the final entrance that ended in the sewer system in Konoha.

As teams guarded each entrance, the Hokage, all nine members of Team Ro plus Shisui, and the ino-shika-cho trio would breach the facility through the entrance at the base of the Hokage Mountain. Through their observation of Danzo, they estimated he had around 20 highly trained root agents of varying strength levels and a number of untrained recruits.

Hyuga Hoheto, a member of Team Ro, turned on his byakugan as they began approaching the entrance at the base of the Hokage Mountain. Seeing that the coast was clear, he signaled to the rest of his group. Once they reached the sealed entrance, Misaki created an ice mirror on the outside of the door and with Hoheto's directions created one inside of the base right next to the entrance. She placed a hand on Kakashi-taicho's arm and began transporting one ninja after another into the base.

During their three months of observation of the root facility and study of the seals protecting said facility they had realized that tampering with the seals at all would instantly alert Danzo to the perimeter breach. The Hokage had been trying to figure out the best way to enter the facility when Misaki informed him that she could transport people one by one through her ice mirrors.

Once all of the 14 ninjas were inside of the base they split up into two groups of seven. The ino-shika-cho trio, the Hokage, Shisui, and two other members of team Ro were strike team 1 and the remaining members of Team Ro were strike team 2 under Kakashi-taicho's command.

They silently subdued the two young root members they ran into as they snuck further into the compound and Misaki placed a complex paralysis seal on each of them before continuing.

The Hokage had expressed that if possible to spare the Root agents' lives but not at the expense of the strike teams' wellbeing. In accordance with the Hokage's wishes, Misaki and Kakashi had pre-made stacks of paralysis seals which they handed out to members of the strike force.

When they reached a fork in the path, the two groups split up. The Hokage's team took the path to the left and Kakashi-taicho's team took the path to the right.

As both teams made their way further into the compound, a sense of wrongness began to permeate. The members they ran into were both young and untrained. They were no match for the trained ANBU infiltrating Root's base.

By their calculations there should be at least twenty highly trained root agents but they had yet to run into one. Within five minutes they searched the entire facility and met back in the central training area. Neither team had found Danzo or most of his trained root agents.

They had run into four trained root agents who they quickly subdued. Unfortunately, they had cursed tongue eradication seals etched onto the backside of their tongue so they were no help in locating their wayward master. It would take hours to remove any of their seals which was precious time that they did not have. Besides judging from the fact that they had seen the ANBU masks and the Hokage and still chose to attack they would most likely not be forthcoming with information.

After checking the backside of a young untrained recruit's tongue and finding no seal on it, Kakashi awakened him. As the young pale boy that reminded Itachi far too much of Sasuke awoke, his eyes widened with panic as he tried to move and found himself unable to.

"We're not going to hurt you. You currently have a paralysis seal on you which is why you're unable to move. Once I remove the seal, I'm going to ask a few questions. So long as you make no move to attack you will remain unharmed. Do you understand?" Inoichi said to reassure the young boy as Kakashi removed the paralysis seal.

As soon as he was able to move the young boy glanced at the other unconscious grey-haired boy a few feet away from him. Seeing that his fellow recruit just unconscious and unharmed seemed to reassure him and he turned back to Inoichi. In a dead emotion-free voice that should never be heard in a child that young, he asked, "What do you want to know?"

"Do you know where Danzo went or do you know what room he was in last? Did he give any indication that he felt people were coming and is there another exit to the facility?" Inoichi continued in the same reassuring tone.

"I don't know where Danzo-sama went. He went into the first room on the right down that hallway and didn't exit. About five minutes ago, he gathered the majority of my sempais and went into that room. I don't know if there are any other exits to the facility." The young boy with translucent-looking pale skin, straight black hair, and dark eyes replied.

Inoichi thanked the boy for his help before telling him that they were going to put another paralysis seal on him but that they wouldn't be harming him. He nodded in understanding before Kakashi put another seal onto him.

The Sandaime cursed inwardly at the young boy's response as the shinobi rushed towards said room. Danzo had somehow known they were coming. Was it possible that they had a root agent among the task force ranks? Inoichi had done a thorough psychological examination of each member of the task force but it was possible that Danzo had trained a root agent so well trained in infiltration that they managed to slip through.

With Hoheto's byakugan, he spotted a passageway behind one of the panels of the wall. Following the passageway it led the shinobi out to the south-east corner of the Forest of Death. As per the Sandaime's orders, Kakashi summoned Pakkun and they began tracking down Danzo.

The Sandaime had Inoichi, Choza, Ibiki, and five of the other ANBU that had been guarding the entrances stay behind to bring the four trained Root agents and the young recruits into T&I. They also gathered up all the evidence they could from inside the compound. The remaining seven ANBU agents that had been guarding the entrance joined the group that was tracking Danzo.

As they followed Pakkun through the village, Hiruzen began to get a foreboding feeling. The fastest way out of the village from the south-east corner of the Forest of Death was the opposite way from where Danzo went. While they were following Danzo's trail, Kakashi used ANBU signs to signal to the rest of the task force that there was the scent of blood and a lot of it.

A minute later standing outside of the gates of the Uchiha compound where the two gate guards were conspicuously missing, the foreboding feeling turned into full on dread.

"Weasel, Hound, Jaguar, Cat, Falcon, and I will go to check up on the Uchiha clan head and his family. Hound summon three other dogs. The rest of you split into three groups of four and search the premises for any sign of Danzo or Root agents. Tell any Root agents to stand down in the name of the Hokage. If they persist, eliminate them. Flare your chakra once if you run into root agents and three times if you run into Danzo. Once you have eliminated the rogue agents assist in bringing the Uchiha clan members to the Nara clan and then return here." The Hokage commanded as Kakashi summoned three other dogs and each team of ANBU split up and followed a dog.

Reaching the front door to Fugaku's home, the Hokage rapped on the door and flared his chakra slightly. A second later Fugaku slid the door open and irately asked, "What is the meaning of this? Hokage-sama, why are you at my door so late?"

"Fugaku-dono as you know, we were going to apprehend Danzo tonight. However, he had some kind of advance warning and fled before we could capture him. His trail led here and the two gate guards were missing."

Fugaku cursed before he whirled around and yelled out, "Mikoto, get Sasuke to safety. The Nara clan has already offered its compound and refuge to us if we needed it. I will send any clan members I find your guys' way. Hokage-sama, I will assist on checking on the wellbeing of the rest of the clan."

As Fugaku stepped out and Mikoto leapt away carrying Sasuke, three unique chakra flares were felt in within a couple seconds of each other. The three other teams had run into Root agents but none had run into Danzo.

"Hiruzen, are you truly siding with a clan with traitorous intentions over me, your former teammate?" Danzo asked as he appeared from the shadows.

"As your Hokage I order you to stand down and as your old friend I'm urging you to come with us peacefully. Do not make us resolve this through battle." Hiruzen said beseechingly before continuing, "The Uchiha clan as a whole is not traitorous. Years of being ostracized by your hand has pushed them to this point. Do not try to deny that."

Danzo sneered, "You want me to stand down Hiruzen? Do you not remember how Tobirama-sensei felt about them? Do you truly believe that this accursed clan has the village's best interests at heart? Members of this clan have already damaged the village twice, Madara when he attacked Hashirama-sama and whichever member unleashed that hellish beast upon Konoha seven years ago. I had no hand in alienating them prior to the attack. Do you not find it suspicious that the Uchiha clan was absent from the village's defense during the Nine-tails' attack on Konoha when sharingan has the power to control the beast? If you truly believe they have the village's best interest at heart then not only have you grown weak in your old age but you have become a fool as well."

"Hashirama-sensei last wish was for us to not hold Madara's actions against the rest of the Uchiha clan. Tobirama-sensei was an excellent shinobi and a great man but he was clouded when it came to the Uchiha. How dare you bring up the fact that they were absent from the village's defense! Against my better judgment, I heeded **your** advice and had the Uchiha purely protect the citizens and avoid the nine-tails. Do not even talk to me about having the village best interests at heart when you had the power to stop the nine-tails attack at any time. Did you really think I didn't notice that none of your forces were there assisting to subdue the nine tails and that I wouldn't find out you had a shinobi that had the power to contain the Kyuubi?" Hiruzen thundered.

"This clan consumed by the curse of hatred is too powerful. The power of the Sharingan is too useful to be left in the hands of traitorous Uchiha. It will only bring bloodshed and grief to Konoha. While it is true that not all of them are traitorous right now, it is only a matter of time. As time has shown, the curse of hatred will consume them. Out of the hundreds of Uchiha I've known during my entire lifetime only three were able to put the village above all else. It is better to cull them now than be stabbed in the back when we least expect it. You and I will never see eye to eye. There is no point in conversing any longer." Danzo said as ten root shinobi slid out from the shadows and began to attack.

Despite the fact that Fugaku wished to stay and help, the Hokage ordered him to take refuge with the rest of his clan at the Nara compound. Fugaku was a good shinobi but it was not worth possibly risking his life. Should the Uchiha clan head fall in battle, it would only incite animosity and distrust from the remaining Uchiha clan.

Kakashi recognized nine of the ten ninjas attacking from Danzo's failed assassination attempt on the Sandaime. Hinoe, Kanoe, Kanoto, Kinoto, Mizunoe, Mizunoto, and Tsuchinoto were very talented shinobi. Hinoto and Tsuchinoe were also very skilled kunoichi. They were the top Root agents that Danzo had at his disposal.

He didn't recognize the last root member but the time he had fought the nine aforementioned shinobi and kunoichi, they had been strong adversaries. With the help of seven other ANBU, they had managed to defeat but the Root agents were still skilled enough to escape with their lives. He knew that his current teammates were much stronger and more skilled than the teammates he had during his initial battle with the root agents but this time they were outnumbered two to one.

The battle was an utterly chaotic fight with ten root members facing Kakashi, Tenzo, Shisui, Itachi, and Misaki. That wasn't even including the Kage-level fight that was raging between the Sandaime and Danzo. On top of dodging attacks from the root agents, they had to dodge various jutsu and projectiles from the Kage-level fight ongoing right next to them.

Through the months of Kakashi's excruciating teamwork exercises and harsh training, Team Ro and Shisui worked together flawlessly. If a root agent managed to land a hit on one team member, another was instantly there pushing back the Root agents giving their teammate time to recover.

As their fights destroyed several houses, the Hokage knew that they needed to move the fight out of the Uchiha district or else they would end up destroying the entire clan compound and possibly even a significant portion of the southeast quadrant of the village. With that in mind, he continued pushing the fight further and further east. The Uchiha clan compound was on the outer edge of Konoha close to the eastern part of the wall surrounding Konoha.

Hating what he was about to do but having no other choice, Hiruzen seized an opening in Danzo's guard to use his bo staff to throw Danzo through part of the wall surrounding the Uchiha clan and part of the wall surrounding Konoha. Then he continued to push Danzo back until they were a fair distance from the village.

Danzo and the Root agents hadn't cared what they made collateral damage as they attempted to take down the Hokage and the ANBUs. They had been firing jutsu after jutsu damaging the houses and buildings that had surrounded them. Now that they were on the outside of Konoha's walls, Hiruzen and the rest of his ANBUs could let loose without fearing damage to the city itself.

Outside of Konoha's city limits, the ferocity of the fight went up a notch. The Hokage and his ANBUs had been trying to avoid large scale jutsu so they could avoid damaging the Uchiha clan compound and the city itself. Now outside of the city they were no longer limited to taijutsu and kenjutsu. Even with just kenjutsu and taijutsu, they had managed to take out one of the Root agents and wound another before the Hokage forced Danzo outside of the city limits so they had nine more Root agents and Danzo to deal with.

Now that they didn't have to worry about collateral damage, Misaki unsealed a few of the water storage scrolls she had. The resulting water unleashed flooded she immediately used to create fifteen ice mirrors dispersed across the area. She also created several water clones.

One of the Root agents darted forward and foolishly sliced through the one of her water clones with his ninjato. As he cut through the clone the resulting water instantly turned to sharp ice spikes that skewered him, killing him instantly. Misaki replaced the water clone with another as some root agents circled her and her clones warily. Since she was faster than the root agents, her clones were able to dodge the various jutsus and projectiles as they surged toward the root agents and attacked.

It was obvious from the viciousness of the Root agents' attacks and the way they were focusing Tenzo that they despised him for his betrayal of their leader. However they were no match for Tenzo's taijutsu prowess and superb control over his wood release. So far, he was able to simultaneously fend off three root agents at once. With Shisui's assistance, he was able to not only fend them off but kill one and put the rest attacking him on the defensive.

As Misaki created water clones, Tenzo formed the snake hand seal and pumped an enormous amount of chakra into his wood release deep forest emergence jutsu. In a matter of moments, the previously empty area was a lush forest filled with tall trees.

Seeing Tenzo use deep forest emergence jutsu, Misaki released eight of the remaining twelve water scrolls she had and enveloped herself and Tenzo each in a protective box of translucent ice. Tenzo turned all the trees into living weapons making it unsafe for the root agents to land among the branches. Whenever they touched down to the ground, roots would begin grasping for them or ice spikes would shoot upwards toward them forcing them to be constantly on the move.

Misaki and Tenzo had trained for many weeks and months to be able to use their kekkei genkai in conjunction flawlessly. Though it was chakra intensive for both Misaki and Tenzo, the most important thing was to take down the root agents as quickly as possible so they could assist and protect the Hokage.

Trees became sentient guardians and ice spears rained down from thin air instantly forcing the root agents back up into the air anytime they touched down on a surface. As Misaki and Tenzo kept the root agents on the run from within the safety of Misaki's ice, the rest of their team attacked them relentlessly.

The Root agents used fire jutsus to burn through the trees attacking them and cut through the branches and roots that attempted to impede their movements. They attempted to melt Misaki's ice as well but her kekkei genkai was impervious to all fires she had encountered so far and their fire jutsus were no different.

Unlike the root agents Shisui, Itachi, and Kakashi were able to safely land on the ice spikes and trees their teammates created. Between dodging tree branches, roots, and ice the root agents became easy targets for their already stronger and faster opponents.

With Misaki and Tenzo keeping the root agents off balance and on the run, Itachi, Kakashi, and Shisui launched a combined assault against agent after agent. Shisui spewed a raging great fireball jutsu which Itachi bolstered with a wind release great breakthrough jutsu. Though the root agents dodged the immense flames, as one of the agents leapt to safety he was cut down by Kakashi's katana.

As another Root agent dodged a furious taijutsu onslaught from Itachi, he briefly touched down on one of Misaki's giant ice spikes. The split second that his feet were frozen to the ice, he was run through by multiple spears of ice. A fifth Root agent was downed when he dodged Itachi's water bullet only for Shisui to shunshin to where he dodged and severed a major artery causing the root agent to bleed out.

With only five root agents left, Misaki and Tenzo both stopped their chakra intensive jutsus and entered the fray. While the Root agents had worn out their stamina while dodging various ice attacks and wood jutsus and used a significant amount of chakra when they used jutsus to destroy Tenzo's trees when they could no longer avoid them, Team Ro and Shisui had used barely any of the chakra and stamina.

While Tenzo crushed a large patch of earth and added water to said patch of earth, Shisui herded a root agent to the spot. As soon as the Root agent touched down on the spot, Tenzo used his wood release tree bind eternal burial to summon a tree around the Root agent binding him and dragging him into the ground. The Root agent's pained scream echoed through the battlefield as the tree enveloping him sunk into the ground and he was crushed to death.

Simultaneously, Misaki rapidly through the hand seals for water release stormy upheaval creating a huge waterfall that slammed into two root agents before jumping a safe distance away as Kakashi unleashed a powerful lightning release earth flash jutsu electrocuting the two Root members with a strong electric current.

Itachi used the cover of Misaki's waterfall to sneak up behind one of the remaining root agents and slit their throat. Shisui put the second to last root member under a complex genjutsu then Tenzo trapped the agent with the thin vines of his wood release silent strangle jutsu and Misaki quickly decapitated her with a wind release wind cutter technique. The last and final Root agent died from combined assault by Kakashi and Itachi.

With all the Root agents eliminated, they began assisting the Hokage in his fight against Danzo. Despite being some of the most talented ninjas of their generation, Danzo was a ninja at the same or near the same level or possibly even stronger than the Hokage. Though Danzo was old he had over 50 years of battle experience. That combined with the fact that Danzo was agile and more than fast enough to keep up with the Hokage and shinobi much younger than him made him a dangerous foe.

His skill level and 50 years of battle experience showed. As the battle raged on between the seven ninjas, Misaki flipped backwards into an ice mirror barely dodging a raging inferno that would've severely injured her. It had been so close that Misaki felt her skin prickle from the intense heat that radiated off of the fireball as it sped past her incinerating several trees a few paces away.

Counting that fire release great fireball jutsu, Danzo had exhibited considerable skill in water, earth, and fire natured jutsus. Aside from proficiency in those three elemental natures, he was extremely proficient in wind jutsu. Tenzo had raised a wood release wood locking wall to block a wind release vacuum wave that Danzo aimed at him. It had completely obliterated Tenzo's dome. Misaki had seen Tenzo's wood release wood locking wall withstand multiple wind, water, and earth jutsus before. One wind jutsu from Danzo decimated the entire dome.

However, despite the power gap they were able to tip the battle in the Hokage's favor. Five highly skilled ninjas plus the Hokage was proving too much for Danzo to be able to handle.

Or at least that was what they thought until they realized that any wounds they inflicted on Danzo were somehow healing.

The reason for that became evident when after being cornered Danzo removed a gauntlet-like seal and the bandages wrapped around his right arm exposing a grotesque white arm with some semblance of a face on the right shoulder and five sharingan.

"Danzo, what have you done?" Hiruzen asked horrified as all the color drained from his face at the sight of what looked to be Hashirama-sensei's face on his old teammate's arm and multiple sharingan implanted in said arm. He knew that Danzo had dealings with Orochimaru but he never would have imagined that Danzo would desecrate the first Hokage's remains like that. Danzo's own beloved sensei's brother was not safe from Danzo's corrupt machinations.

"I have done what was necessary to give me the strength to protect the village. In the past few years of peace you've allowed your skills to dull and yourself to grow weak. I, however, have not. " Danzo stated before summoning a giant tapir-like creature and commanding it to attack.

As the Hokage expertly avoided a powerful wind release vacuum sphere, he yelled out over raging winds that Danzo's summon, Baku, was vulnerable to fire jutsu before summoning his personal summon, Enma, to assist against Danzo. The white fur-covered monkey wearing a sleeveless kimono shirt over mesh under armour transformed into a bo that the Hokage wielded with awe-inspiring expertise.

Itachi and Shisui tag teamed Danzo's summon as the remaining shinobi focused on Danzo. They parried the giant creature's claws with their respective swords as they dodged the wind jutsus it churned out. A few minutes into the fight, Itachi upped the ferocity of his attacks forcing the creature into the path of Shisui's fire release great fireball jutsu causing it to return to the summoning plane.

With the summon handled, Shisui and Itachi turned their attention to Danzo. Even with their help, it was difficult to make any progress at taking down a Kage-level foe that could heal all non-fatal wounds. Shisui, Itachi, and Misaki were excellent shinobi but they paled in comparison to Danzo's skill and experience.

Misaki unsealed her remaining two water scrolls and unleashed a barrage of ice attacks against Danzo as she weaved in and out of her ice mirrors and spikes in an attempt to injure him. Danzo dodged the attacks from Misaki and jumped over the river of mud that the Hokage created. As he dodged flaming projectiles from an earthen, dragon-like head the Hokage created, the sound of multiple birds chirping in rapid succession filled the clearing.

Danzo's eyes widened as Kakashi launched himself at Danzo in a blur aiming for his chest. As Kakashi struck, his attack met air instead of Danzo's flesh. Kakashi immediately slipped underground using an earth jutsu as Danzo retaliated with another wind jutsu that would have killed Kakashi at that close range.

The shinobi continued the battle against Danzo but it was challenging to take down an opponent that could not only heal himself of any would but make himself intangible with a hand sign.

Danzo continued to make himself intangible to what would've been fatal hits if they had connected when Tenzo noticed that another of the sharingan that had been open on his arm closed after Danzo phased through the latest attempt to kill him.

"The sharingan on his arm is somehow making him intangible but it only works for a short period of time after which the sharingan permanently closes!" Tenzo warned his teammates as Danzo engaged him in taijutsu furious at Tenzo's relevation.

"I see. He's using some kind of bastardization of Izanagi on himself. It allows the user to control their state of existence to a degree by casting Izanagi on the user instead of on opponents, " Shisui said before warning, "Be careful, it is the most powerful genjutsu amongst its type. It is even forbidden amongst our clan."

Danzo fired an unavoidable, close-range wind release vacuum wave at Misaki. Instead of killing her like he thought, the water clone burst into ice trapping him. In the instant that he was trapped, Tenzo enveloped Danzo the thin but sturdy vines of his wood release silent strangle jutsu. Simultaneously the Hokage fired shurikens towards Danzo, which turned from three shuriken to thousands of projectiles with the Hokage's use of the shuriken shadow clone jutsu, and Itachi and Shisui used a combination fire and wind jutsu.

Their combined attacks forced Danzo into Izanagi and resulted in the fourth eye on his arm closing permanently.

With only one sharingan left, the end of the prolonged twenty minute battle seemed to be near. Team Ro, Shisui, and the Hokage continued their varied attacks on Danzo until his fifth and final eye closed.

As Danzo had no more sharingan open on his arm when Shisui saw an opening he shunshined to the right next to Danzo to stab him with his tanto. Instead of hitting flesh, his tanto passed through his body as if it was an illusion.

But before Shisui could shunshin away, Danzo stabbed him in the kidney and slit his throat. Misaki watched in horrified disbelief as blood spurted from the long gouge across Shisui's neck. The Hokage realized with dawning dismay that underneath Danzo's eyepatch, he must have had a sixth sharingan.

Itachi could feel a burning pain in his each of his eyes as he drowned in a flood of grief and anguish. The man who had taught him the meaning of self-sacrifice and the markings of a true shinobi had just been tragically cut down. He had involved Shisui in the task force. His actions had indirectly caused his best friend and cousin's death. Itachi was drowning in his grief-stricken thoughts before Shisui's body burst into crows.

He shunshined next to Misaki bleeding from a deep gouge in his stomach. Shisui had not avoided the stab to the kidney but he had managed to replace himself with a clone composed of crow summons before Danzo slashed his throat.

Misaki immediately placed down a barrier seal and began inspecting Shisui's wound. As she probed the depths of Shisui's injury, she bit back a curse. Danzo's kunai had torn Shisui's kidney. She would need at least a good five minutes to heal him. She began using the mystic palm jutsu to heal the damage done to Shisui's kidney as their other teammates and the Hokage renewed their efforts against Danzo with increased vigor.

After healing Shisui, the two of them reengaged in the battle against Danzo. A few minutes in she saw an opportunity. Danzo was distracted by the onslaught of taijutsu from the two Uchiha boys and dodging the various swings of the Hokage's extendable bo staff. She used his brief second of distraction to place a paralysis seal on his person and Kakashi slammed him through several trees with a massive grand waterfall jutsu.

Danzo dispelled the paralysis and was attempting to retaliate when the Hokage's bo staff struck him in the chest propelling him through another five trees. As he came to a stop, Tenzo shacked him in his wood release stocks jutsu bringing an end to the extensive thirty minute battle that had destroyed the surrounding area.

Tenzo's jutsu suppressed the target's chakra so the arduous fight was finally over. Misaki used sealing paper to place a complex paralysis and chakra suppression seal on Danzo for preventative measures before the victorious shinobi made the trek back to Konoha. Aside from numerous bruises and shallow cuts, Team Ro and Hokage managed to avoid serious injuries.

The Hokage dismissed Itachi, Shisui, and Misaki so the former two could rest and check on their clan members and the latter could go rest. Tenzo and Kakashi accompanied the Hokage to the T&I department where Ibiki was waiting.

The exhausted ninjas took the roofs to make their way to their destination. Instead of returning straight home like she normally would have, she accompanied Itachi and Shisui to the Nara clan in case anyone needed some kind of medical assistance. For safety reasons, the Hokage had asked them to stay within the safety of the Nara compound unless they had grievous wounds. Only a fool would attack a compound filled with users that controlled shadows during the nighttime when there was a full moon. The two teenagers and one pre-teen leapt across the roofs towards the Nara clan compound making it there in record time.

At the sight of Itachi and Shisui's fatigued but mostly uninjured faces, the pinched expression on Fugaku's face eased slightly. He thanked Misaki for her consideration before directing her towards the clan members that had suffered minor wounds and scrapes.

Fugaku felt the last vestiges of worry disappear as Mikoto checked over Itachi and Shisui persons and found no severe injuries. After walking past the various corpses of murdered clan members as he ushered the live clan members to safety, he had spent the last hour wondering if he had done the right thing but not informing the clan of Danzo.

As he watched Sasuke happily hug his older brother and cousin, Fugaku thought of all that had come to pass in the past three years.

A few weeks after Itachi's first B-ranked mission, the Hokage had called him to his office. Once Fugaku had entered the office, the Hokage had dismissed his ANBU guard and activated a privacy seal that Fugaku had never even seen the likes of before.

He had uneasily sat down in the chair across from the Hokage as the Hokage uttered words that Fugaku had been terrified to hear since he had heard whispers of unrest going through the clan. In a clear no nonsense tone the Hokage said, "I know."

Fugaku's pulse rate began pounding as he tried to muster up the fortitude to feign ignorance in front of one of the most powerful shinobi that had ever graced this earth or the fortitude to try escaping from said shinobi and hurrying the clan out of Konoha. Before he could make a decision either way, the Hokage continued, "I do not condone the path your clan is wandering down but I also know that the blame does not solely rest on any of your shoulders. So this is what I propose."

The Hokage then explained in detail how Danzo had been trying and successfully ostracizing the Uchiha clan. He also apologized for the prejudice of his predecessor before telling Fugaku that it was the Shodaime's wish that the Uchiha clan not be held responsible for Madara's actions. The Shodaime valued the Uchiha clan's contribution to Konoha and had great respect for them. The Hokage even apologized for his part in not recognizing Danzo's traitorous actions sooner.

Fugaku was floored by the words the Hokage was saying. In the span of minutes, he had gone from desperately fearing for his life and his clan's lives to seeing hope for the Uchiha clan for the first time in over a decade. For so long the Uchiha clan had tried to do their best for the village only to receive scorn and distrust in return.

Prior to the Kyuubi attack, some of the ordinary citizens already disliked police in general and as the police was comprised solely of Uchiha, the dislike of the police transferred to their clan. After the events of the Kyuubi attack 7 years ago, previous allies of the clan had even begun to distrust them. The knowledge that sharingan could control the Kyuubi had caused even citizens that had trusted and liked the police to gaze at them with suspicion.

He sincerely assured the Hokage that he didn't blame the Hokage before committing wholeheartedly to taking down Danzo. Over the course of a multitude of long meetings with the task force that had been assembled, they formulated plans to take down Danzo and quell the animosity on both the village and Uchiha's sides.

Despite his hesitance, Fugaku agreed to not disclose any of the proceedings to the clan. Danzo had eyes and ears everywhere. As much as he wanted to adamantly say that no Uchiha were part of Root, he couldn't say it with one hundred percent certainty.

None of the members of the task force had expected Danzo to try to massacre the Uchiha clan instead of fleeing when he was confronted. So Fugaku had been unprepared as he passed by houses of family members that reeked of the scent of blood when he tried to find survivors. Thankfully, the majority of the clan survived but around twenty members had been killed.

As Fugaku noted which clan members had been murdered, he began to notice a pattern. Although the majority of the clan had been happy that relations with the village had vastly improved, there were naysayers who believed that it was only a matter of time before the other shoe dropped.

They had stopped protesting aloud and outwardly seemed okay with the proceedings as more time went on. But despite that fact Fugaku couldn't ignore the hints and niggling feeling that they were not happy with the direction that the clan was taking.

He hadn't had any proof that they still wished to go forward with the coup d'etat but it could not be a coincidence that Danzo had systematically eliminated the clan members that Fugaku had been unsure whether they were truly loyal to Konoha or not. Those clan members were not all in the same area yet Danzo had eliminated them first instead of going house by house.

As Mikoto placed a hand comfortingly on his arm, Fugaku forced himself to focus on the positive. The truth would come out in time. The Hokage would be launching an investigation into all the events that had occurred tonight. Even if those clan members had been traitorous, the Hokage had assured him that the knowledge would die with Danzo.

Fugaku reassured Mikoto that he was okay as he comforted himself with the fact that they had successfully dismantled Root and Danzo had been captured alive. He would be interrogated thoroughly by the best interrogators that Konoha had at their disposal and his crimes would be brought to light before the Hokage and clan heads of each major clan in Konoha.

While the Uchiha clan mourned the loss of family members in the Nara clan compound, a masked shinobi slipped into a home in the Uchiha compound and placed something into a drawer filled with various shirts before taking off in the night.

* * *

After months and months of being extremely busy with the task force and ANBU missions, Misaki finally had time off. The Hokage had given all members of the task force the month following the arrest of Danzo off and the option to attend the clan heads briefing as ANBU.

There wouldn't be a trial as it was too dangerous to even allow Danzo out of the heavily fortified cell he current was in. His crimes would be exposed before the clan heads and members of the task force. Following the clan head debriefing, Danzo would be privately executed.

The Hokage would then denounce Danzo and his actions to the citizens of Konoha. Though the fight was miles outside of Konoha it was impossible to hide the fact that a Kage-level battle had raged for thirty minutes.

Besides the fact that the fight was impossible to hide, Uchiha clan's involvement in taking down the biggest traitor Konoha ever had would help immensely in repairing relations between the citizens of Konoha and the Uchiha clan. Though there had been vast improvement in the past three years, every bit helped.

A week after the fight against Danzo, the members of the task force stood silently in the background as the Hokage informed the clan heads of his traitorous deeds. During the course of the week, the Hokage had discovered even more disturbing information than Danzo ostracizing the Uchiha clan.

Finding out that Homura and Koharu were complicit in some of Danzo's illicit and treasonous actions had disturbed Hiruzen. Though complicit they hadn't committed any egregious crimes so Hiruzen had given them the option of retiring six months with their honor intact or being stripped of the positions and being outed. Unsurprisingly both had chosen to retire.

The Hokage revealed most of the information of Danzo's actions to the gathered clan heads but chose to conceal the fact that Danzo was a driving force behind the third shinobi war. If information like that got out, the other nations might choose to band together and seek vengeance against Konoha. Only he and Shikaku, his jonin commander and lead strategist, were privy to that information.

Aside from revealing Danzo's crimes to the clan heads, the Sandaime also informed them that he was changing the advisory council. Danzo's treachery had highlighted the flaws of lifetime appointments. Instead of three advisors with lifetime appointments, the three advisors that were selected by the Hokage could be dismissed from their positions from by the Hokage as long as the Hokage had due cause.

To avoid events similar to Danzo's crimes happening in the future the jonin commander, the ANBU commander, the chief of police, and the head of the hospital would join the three elected positions for a total of seven advisors.

After appraising the clan heads of the situation and the changes to the Hokage's council, Hiruzen made his way down to the cell where Danzo was currently being held. Hiruzen had nothing left to say to his former teammate that had caused so much damage to Konoha and the shinobi world as a whole but out of respect for the history they shared he would be there for Danzo's final moments.

He stood behind the glass looking into Danzo's cell and activated the seal that would permanently stop his heart. Hiruzen silently watched Danzo breathe his final breath before placing his body into a storage scroll and burning the scroll.

As he made his way back towards his home with a heavy heart, he privately mourned how much good Danzo could've done with his strength if Danzo hadn't chosen to go down this dark path. He wondered if by sanctioning Root and allowing Danzo to conduct black ops missions that he had pushed Danzo further into his depravity.

It was true that Root had been meant as an organization to give Konoha plausible deniability but mainly it was his gift to Danzo for his years of service for Konoha. It was also because he had beaten Danzo to the Hokage's position. He had once believed that Danzo would've made a great Hokage so he had thought Danzo would use Root to strengthen Konoha not weaken Konoha.

He never expected for Danzo to stray so far into darkness and depravity that he would instigate so much strife and war. The barracks in the ANBU tower were currently filled to the brim of emotionless children that were a testimony to how far Danzo had gone and how much he had damaged in his quest to strengthen his organization.

Only time would tell if they would be able to reverse the damage he had inflicted upon these innocent souls but Hiruzen hoped more than anything that they would be able to. Some of Danzo's "recruits" were barely seven years old. They were Naruto's age.

It wounded Hiruzen to look upon faces that should be filled with innocent joy and see absolutely no emotion. They shouldn't be able to hide their emotion as well as a trained shinobi.

All former Root recruits and the Root agents that had chosen to cease fighting would have mandatory counselling sessions twice to three times a week until their counselor deemed sessions no longer necessary. Some of the younger recruits would be placed in the academy and others that were too advanced for the academy would be given mentors. Hopefully being around their peers or having a mentor combined with counselling sessions would be enough to undo the damage Danzo had wrought.

After three long years, it was finally almost over. He only had one last thing to do.

Hiruzen had scheduled to deliver a speech tomorrow to the citizens of Konoha. Tomorrow he would denounce Danzo and expose some of his crimes to the citizens. With any luck that would dissipate the remaining animosity towards the Uchiha, dissolve the lingering resentment in the Uchiha clan, and everyone would be able to move on and heal.

Feeling a familiar and most welcome flare of chakra, Hiruzen opened his living room window and let Jiraiya in. Jiraiya silently placed several of Hiruzen's favorite brand of high-quality, strong sake on the coffee table before pouring them each a saucer.

As they clinked glasses before each downing a shot of sake, Hiruzen was thankful that his student made the trek across the elemental countries to be there for him. They drank the remaining bottles of sake as they commiserated over lost teammates and painful but precious memories.


	19. The Aftermath

A/N: I hadn't realized that responding to the reviews in the chapter might bother people and quite how much space it took up so from now on I'm going to pm people instead of posting it at the beginning of the chapter. Sorry this chapter took so long, I've been pretty busy especially with thanksgiving this past week. To those who celebrate thanksgiving, I hope you had an awesome thanksgiving!

* * *

 **Chapter 19: The Aftermath**

After the Hokage's address to the citizens of Konoha, Misaki and Haku slowly walked back to their apartment. At hearing what had happened to the Uchiha clan, the cloud of happiness that had been exuding from Haku for the past week since Misaki had more free time had dissipated. Haku's eyes were clouded over with sadness as they made their way back to their apartment.

Thirty minutes later as they were eating lunch, Haku asked, "Nee-chan do you know if Ren-sempai and Satomi-chan are okay?"

Misaki had been dreading that question ever since she visited the Hokage a few days prior to the speech to inform the Hokage that she wished to resign from ANBU.

After she informed him, the Hokage responded, "I had a feeling that was what this meeting was about. Aside from that we also lost several ANBU agents during the events of a few days ago with Danzo's traitorous actions being exposed many countries may see this as an opportune time to strike against Konoha or to test the waters. Although you've already done so much to help Konoha, I must ask you to stay in ANBU for the time being. It will be less hectic in ANBU now that you are only running ANBU missions not task force missions alongside your regular missions."

Misaki acquiesced to the Hokage's request as she realized that she could ask the Hokage about the wellbeing of Ren instead of bothering Itachi while his clan was in mourning. Since leaving the Nara compound after healing several Uchiha clan members she had not seen hide or hair of any Uchiha.

"Hokage-sama, I was wondering if you knew if Uchiha Ren and Uchiha Satomi survived the events of the other night. They are friends of my brother and I was wondering if they were okay." Misaki said.

As soon as the Hokage heard the names, a sorrowful expression appeared on his face which was definitely not a good sign. "Misaki-chan, Satomi-chan and her younger brother survived. I'm sorry but all Uchiha have been accounted for except for Ren-kun. After the chaos of that night, we realized that the fatality count was closer to thirty than twenty. Before we intercepted them, Danzo and his Root agents managed to kill a little under a third of the Uchiha clan. When Danzo went about eliminating certain adults, he also had the Root agents kill their children. Ren-san's parents were murdered and there has been no sign of Ren. Even the best trackers have not been able to find any trail of him. The likeliest scenario is that the Root agents were planning on disposing of the bodies after killing them and that they managed to dispose of his body before we intercepted them. I must ask you to keep all events pertaining to the Massacre to yourself until after I address the citizens of Konoha but after that you may break the news to your brother."

"Also Hokage-sama, did the investigators discover how Danzo knew that we were coming?"

"Yes, through interrogation we found that one of the Aburame Root agents that we had subdued in the Root facility had a kikaichu tracking Tenzo. When the ANBU tasked with investigating the events went back to the entrance we breached the root facility from they found a dead kikaichu bug which corroborated the Root agent's information."

Relieved to find that none of the task force members had betrayed them, Misaki thanked the Hokage for the information and left.

Since her meeting with the Hokage, Misaki had been trying to figure out the best way to break the horrible news to her brother. Glancing at her brother's already downtrodden face, Misaki didn't know how Haku would take the news. Ren wasn't one of Haku's close friends like Satomi was but Haku admired and looked up to Ren. Even if Haku wanted to pay his respects to Ren's grave, he wouldn't be able to for a while.

Like Hana, Ren had graduated this past March and become a genin so he was subject to missing in action protocols. Anytime that a shinobi was presumed dead but there was no physical evidence or body, they would be declared missing in action for a month before they were declared deceased.

Misaki looked at Haku who was patiently waiting for her response. Even though it was hard, Haku deserved to know the truth. Over the course of her two lifetimes, she had learned the hard way how much damage lies could do.

"Haku, I'm sorry but they think he was killed during the Uchiha massacre. His body has yet to turn up but his parents were also killed." Misaki said as she wrapped Haku in a comforting hug.

"Nee-chan if his body hasn't turned up then there is still a chance he's alive right?" Haku asked with hope gleaming among the unshed tears in his chocolate brown eyes.

Misaki hated the fact that she had to destroy the glimmer of hope in Haku eyes but she knew Ren wouldn't have been able to survive against the Root ANBU agents' onslaught. Even his parents that were chunin had stood been cut down. As a freshly graduated genin, he might as well have been a civilian compared to the highly trained Root ANBUs.

"I'm so sorry, otouto but they sent the best search and rescue teams to try to find him. His trail never left his home in the Uchiha compound. Even though they didn't find a body, most likely he's dead. All ninjas of a certain caliber know basic body disposal techniques."

At Misaki's words, the hope in Haku's eyes shattered and the tears that had been shimmering in Haku's eyes streamed down his face.

Twenty minutes later, Haku's sobs subsided somewhat. With the occasional tear still dripping down his face, Haku asked if he could visit Satomi. He wanted to verify with his own eyes that his best friend was okay, pay his respects, and also to keep his mind off the fact that the kindly sempai that had protected him from bullies and always offered helpful advice had been tragically cut down for no reason.

Misaki acquiesced and dropped Haku off to the Nara compound where Satomi currently resided before spending the rest of the day assisting various shinobi and civilians that were helping the Uchiha in rebuild their compound.

As more days passed, Haku still mourned the loss of his sempai but he slowly began returning back to normal. Similarly though the Uchiha clan was still mourning the loss of its members, life in Konoha started to go back to a semblance of normal a few weeks after the massacre with one significant change.

Civilians and shinobi that had previously been suspicious or fearful of the Uchiha compound felt horrible for their treatment of fellow Konoha citizens and were sympathetic to their horrible loss.

In the weeks following the tragic event, Konoha as a whole rallied together to help the Uchiha clan get back on their feet. Citizens donated blankets, clothing, and anything the grieving clan could use. People opened their hearts and homes to the grieving, homeless members of the Uchiha clan and helped rebuild their ruined compound.

Although the group that had been with the Hokage managed to avoid damaging the Uchiha compound too much, the other three groups of ANBU hadn't. Over half of the houses in Uchiha compound had been destroyed in the melee.

The massacre had saddened and angered many of the Uchiha but seeing the entire village wholeheartedly helping them back on their feet had diminished the anger and soothed some of their grief. The genuine care and help healed the lingering resentment that had been festering in the Uchiha clan since they had been unfairly blamed for the Kyuubi attack.

Though the clan had never been hit harder than Danzo's slaughter, they had also never felt as cherished or truly accepted by the village. All the clan had ever wanted was to be respected and accepted by the village that they had helped found, two things that had eluded them ever since Madara's actions decades ago.

On a bright and sunny September morning two months after the Massacre, Misaki woke up and got ready for team training. Even though she had a slight headache and her stomach started to hurt slightly after breakfast, she was excited to be sparring with Itachi and Shogo.

Misaki and Itachi had been so busy over the past year between the task force and regular ANBU missions and as an experienced and talented tracker Shogo had been so busy that they had rarely had a leisure day to spend training with each other.

They had popped by the Akimichi compound the day before to see if Choza-sensei was free but unfortunately he was away on a mission and wouldn't return for a few days.

So she ignored her discomfort as she made her way to training ground 20. When she arrived, Itachi and Shogo were already there. They set the terms of the spar before they did a light stretching routine and warmup. Instead of one on one spars like they had done as genin and chunin, it would be an all-out spar.

As Misaki completed the warmup, she noticed that her initial lower stomach pain had turned from a dull constant pain to intense spasms of pain. She unsealed her medical pouch and was about to take a painkiller, when out of the corner of her eye she noticed both of her teammates had their eyes averted.

They did two quick rounds of rock paper scissor. Shogo lost both rounds and placed his hands on his face as he groaned aloud.

"Itachi, you lucky bastard," Shogo griped. He then turned to her with a slightly red face and cringed as he hesitantly mumbled, "Umm… Misaki-chan… you're umm… dripping…"

Misaki was confused for a split second as she pondered what he could mean by dripping. After a second she realized there could only be one thing he meant by that. Horrified, Misaki looked down and saw a dribble of blood trailing down her right leg. She instantly replaced herself with a nearby log and shunshined away.

With all the craziness of ANBU and the task force, Misaki had completely disregarded the fact that she was a prepubescent twelve year old girl. Misaki had not even thought that what ailed her this morning could be symptoms of something she had been dreading since she first discovered she had been reborn as a girl.

She had just assumed that she had eaten something that hadn't sat well with her stomach for breakfast. Misaki hadn't even spared a thought to the unfriendly monthly visitors that girls and women everywhere had to endure as she had yet to get her period. With her thirteenth birthday around the corner in November, Misaki was dreading the onset of puberty. Experiencing it as a boy had been awkward enough, let alone experiencing it as a girl this time around.

She cast a genjutsu on herself as she made her way to the closest convenience store. With the genjutsu, she was able to cover not only the spot and blood but the blush she had been unable to banish since it appeared when Shogo had uttered the words you're dripping. She was normally unflappable and able to coolly dismiss or cover up any embarrassment easily but the situation was beyond embarrassing.

Why of all days would she have to start her period on a day when she had training with her genin teammates… Despite how mortified she was by the whole event, Misaki counted her lucky stars that it had happened on a day of just training and not during a mission. She would've just about died if a shinobi or kunoichi that she didn't know well had to tell her.

At the convenience store, she looked at all the rows filled with various female sanitary items completely overwhelmed. Misaki had never realized quite how many different types there were.

Too embarrassed and prideful to ask the male store attendant for help, she meandered aimlessly as she browsed through all the various products. How in the hell was she supposed to know if she needed heavy or light coverage and what the hell did having wings on them do? Misaki didn't even want to look at the various rows of something called a tampon. Why couldn't the ninja world have only one or two variants like the wizarding world had? About to give in and ask the male attendant for help, she began making her way out of the feminine hygiene aisle.

"First time experiencing your menstruation cycle?" A regal-looking older woman in her thirties with brown hair and light brown eyes asked.

At Misaki's sheepish nod she continued, "These are the best type of sanitary pads and these brand of tampons come with an instruction booklet." Seeing the horrified look in Misaki's eyes at the tampon box, she laughed softly as she said, "If you're scared of the tampons, there's no harm in sticking to pads."

"There were just so many different kinds of each…" Misaki blurted out before she said, "Thank you so much for all of your help."

The woman smiled benevolently at Misaki before she said, "No problem, I could tell that you were struggling with all the different kinds and I figured you wouldn't want to ask the male attendant for help. I, myself, have a young daughter named Ino and I would hope that another woman would be kind enough to help her if she was ever in the same situation."

Thanking the woman once more Misaki grabbed the box of pads and tampons the woman had indicated before heading to the register. She had contemplated not getting the box of tampons as the thought of sticking something up there completely freaked her out. However, she figured it was better to get them in case she needed them.

In her past life she had only ever dated women and as a man she had never had to stick something up there. Despite the fact that as a kunoichi she had been injured in the line of duty, sticking something up there seemed painful and something she planned to avoid for as long as possible.

Misaki made her way home with her purchases. As she showered and changed, she contemplated on whether or not she should head back to training ground 20. She was normally imperturbable and able to dismiss embarrassment easily but this was not a normal situation…

On one hand, it had been so long since they had a free time to leisurely spar and hangout. On the other hand while Shogo and Itachi's expressions had been a hilarious mixture of horror and embarrassment, she didn't know if she could face them without breaking out into a full-on blush.

The embarrassment they probably felt was nowhere near the awkwardness that Misaki felt that she had unknowingly been dripping blood and that Shogo had to inform her of the fact. She didn't think she'd be able to see him for the next few days without being overwhelmed with awkwardness. Aside from that fact, her cramps were painful as hell.

The choice was taken out of her hands when she heard a hawk summoning her to the Hokage's office solving her dilemma. Misaki had never been more grateful to be summoned for a mission. That was including the time that Gai had presented her a forest green workout suit her size and steadfastly tried to convince her of the benefits wearing of a jumpsuit like his.

Training benefits or not there was no way in hell that Misaki would don that horrendous green jumpsuit. She couldn't even think of anyone other than Gai who would be crazy enough to do so. If she thought she could get away with it, she'd get rid of Gai's jumpsuit and every copy he had of it. However, the horror stories that Choza-sensei had once regaled her with about the times he and Gai's genin teammates tried to rid Gai of his jumpsuit stayed her hand.

Though it might be vain, so far in both of her lives Misaki had prided herself in being well-dressed and she wasn't about to wear something as hideous as that. It was a blinding eyesore that had taken Misaki months to get used to when Gai began teaching her taijutsu.

However as she took in the occupants of the Hokage's office, she resisted the urge to cringe. Among the members of Team Ro assigned the mission was Itachi. Itachi, Kakashi, Hoheto, and Misaki were being assigned to infiltrate and assassinate a rival shipping magnate for some businessman that conducted business along the Land of Rivers and the Land of Fire.

They left Konoha immediately for the coastal city in the southwest-most part of the Land of Fire where his rival was based. As they leapt through the forest, Hoheto tilted his mask in confusion at the pained gait Misaki was exhibiting.

"Jaguar, are you injured?" Hoheto asked concerned.

At his question, Kakashi's shoulders shook imperceptibly with silent laughter as Itachi missed a step and almost stumbled. Misaki colored under her mask and did the hand signs for a scent concealing jutsu. Over the years she had gotten better at controlling and getting rid of her blushes but with her fair coloring Misaki blushed easily. She had forgotten that her taicho would be able to smell her you-know-what until she saw his shoulders shake in laughter. She had just been so unsettled by actually getting her period and the horrible cramps that came with it.

"Ah… I'm not injured." Misaki stiffly reassured Hoheto as she took a pain reliever.

As Draco, Misaki had never realized how horrible women had it. Sure Pansy and various female Slytherins had occasionally bitched about cramps, bloating, and cravings but experiencing it was a completely different story. In her past life like many other males, Misaki had just assumed they were over exaggerating but had refrained from commenting as she wasn't stupid enough to enrage pmsing females.

Theodore Nott had once been stupid enough to prank a few of their housemates that were on their cycle and the revenge that Pansy and Millicent had enacted upon him was rather terrifying. Pansy and Millicent walked around with Cheshire cat-like grins for days afterwards and the rest of their year… hell the rest of the Slytherin house had learned to never mess with a girl during her cycle. For a while he couldn't even look at either Pansy or Millicent without picturing the horrifying glimpse of their revenge that he walked in on and seen. Some things could never be unseen.

But now she could see why some women were irritable as hell when they were on their period. Abdominal period cramps were excruciating. Aside from the ceaseless cramps, she felt tired despite having a full eight hours of sleep and her headache from earlier had yet to dissipate. Even though Hoheto was just expressing concern, she had wanted to snap at him. All-in-all she felt wretched and irritable as hell.

She also had an intensely strong craving for chocolate. Misaki loved sweets and could survive solely on sweets if her body didn't need the nutrition from other food groups but she had never felt such a passionate craving for it. A craving that she would be unable to fulfill until they completed this mission Misaki thought woefully as they made their way towards Shobara.

She had thought about asking Itachi if he had any sweets on him but a she knew that he didn't usually carry sweets with him during ANBU missions and b she was still mortified from earlier.

With the pace they travelled at, it took the members of Team Ro eight hours to reach Shobara. Upon reaching Shobara, they made their way to the owner of Nakajima Shipping Company's house. Nakajima's security was comprised solely of mercenaries so they were able to slip through the building undetected.

Outside of the corridor of Nakajima's bedroom, Hoheto signed that the two guards outside of his door had somewhat developed chakra systems. They were probably genin level or academy that had dropped from the shinobi program.

Hoheto used his byakugan to make sure that the target was sound asleep before Misaki created an ice mirror on the interior of their target's room near the balcony and one at their current location. Misaki used her ice mirror to transport herself and Itachi into the target's bedroom.

After transporting Itachi, she went back into her pocket dimension and drew the ice mirror at Kakashi and Hoheto's location into her pocket dimension before exiting back into the target's room again. They had been instructed to make the target's death look natural so they couldn't leave behind anything that would hint to outside forces.

Itachi turned on his sharingan so he would be able to see if Hoheto's chakra flexed in warning as Misaki placed a paralysis seal on Nakajima. Then using her kekkei genkai, she began lowering his body temperature.

Nakajima began shivering and his breathing became shallow and slow as the onset of hypothermia occurred. His pulse grew weaker and weaker until his heart failed and his pulse stopped. Misaki waited for a few minutes before using a medical jutsu to verify his death.

With his death verified, she used a medical jutsu used to treat mild cases of hypothermia to raise his internal body temperature back to normal. To anyone, even an experienced medical-nin, it would seem as if Nakajima had suffered a heart attack in the middle of the night.

Misaki and Itachi catapulted off the balcony as Kakashi and Hoheto made their way silently and stealthily out of the compound.

Through her experimentation with her kekkei genkai, Misaki had discovered she could make it seem like the target died from natural causes. Aside from being able to fake the target dying of natural causes, her ice mirrors allowed her to slip in and out of locations seamlessly and leave no trail behind. Itachi was extremely skilled in stealth and his genius in genjutsu made him an excellent candidate for assassination missions as well.

This wasn't Itachi or Misaki's first assassination mission and with their unique skill set and excellent teamwork, it would not be their last. Together they made a deadly and near unstoppable pair of assassins.

Assassination missions were Misaki's most hated type of mission. As long as the client paid Konoha handsomely for the mission, ANBU members did what their Hokage asked of them. However that didn't change the fact that assassination missions always left a bad taste in Misaki's mouth.

As her team made their way back to Konoha Misaki just prayed that Haku would never be asked to join ANBU and complete assassination missions. Misaki was excellent at compartmentalizing and though assassinations bothered her, she could live with the stain they left on her.

Haku's sweet and gentle nature would be irrevocable changed and shattered by such missions though. Misaki didn't even know how Haku would handle having to injure and kill people during a mission let alone being sent on a mission with the sole purpose of ending another human's life.

She hoped that he would never have to find out. When the Hokage had asked for her to remain in ANBU, she had agreed on the condition that for so long as he or his future predecessor could help it that they would not attempt to recruit Haku into ANBU. The Hokage had explained that they usually tried to avoid recruiting shinobi that would be unable to handle ANBU and expressed sorrow that Misaki would feel the need to set such a condition but he had agreed.

Misaki was grateful that he agreed to her stipulation. Trying to avoid recruiting shinobi that would be damaged by being in ANBU was much different from **not** recruiting shinobi that would be damaged by being an ANBU operative after all.

Glancing at her former genin and current ANBU teammate leaping across the trees heading back to Konoha next to her was a prime example of that. Although Itachi was immensely strong and skilled, with his gentle and pacifistic nature Misaki doubted that he would have ever joined ANBU had the events with his clan not forced him to. Misaki also doubted that the Hokage would have recruited Itachi or her to ANBU had events not forced his hand.

Like her, Itachi excelled at compartmentalizing things but ANBU had made a marked difference on his attitude during missions. After Choza-sensei's advice following their first kill many years ago, all three members of team 6 had fervently strove to become stronger. Their relentless efforts to improve themselves as quickly as possible had yielded results.

Sometimes, they were able to avoid killing enemy shinobi or combatants. Prior to joining ANBU, Itachi's strength had enabled him to approach conflicts less violently than most other shinobi would.

However since joining ANBU and the events of the Uchiha massacre, it was more often than not that Itachi had been forced to resolve conflicts with swift viciousness and lethalness. ANBU missions rarely ended without conflict and death. Rarely if ever were they able to leave enemies alive. Part of ANBU was ensuring that no trace of their presence remained, after all. Misaki didn't want to see Haku undergo the changes that Itachi had been forced to.

The Yuki clan kekkei genkai was extremely useful for slipping in and out of places. Aside from that, there were several other reasons that it was extremely suited for the tasks ANBUs were generally assigned and Haku had already shown great talent at his kekkei genkai usage.

Though he had a much smaller chakra pool than Misaki, he already had more control then she had at his age and higher than normal chakra reserves. With time he would become an excellent and formidable shinobi.

She knew that if the Hokage or future Hokage truly required Haku's services in ANBU for the sake of the village and there was no other option that they would do it. But at least this way, they would avoid it completely or for as long as possible and that's all Misaki could hope for. Though Konoha was run by a benevolent military dictator, it didn't change the fact that he was a military dictator. As she had vowed after her first kill, whatever she had to do to ensure Haku's happiness and wellbeing was worth it.

* * *

Four months after their assassination mission in Shobara, the results of that acceptance and improved relations between Konoha, its citizens, and the Uchiha clan had become evident.

For the first time since its founding, the Konoha Military Police opened its ranks to non-Uchiha members. Many non-Uchiha chunin, genin corps members, and civilians applied to join the Konoha Police Academy and had been accepted.

Several Aburames, Yamanakas, Naras, Inuzukas, and even Hyuga clan members joined the Konoha Police Academy. Some that had not wanted to pursue the shinobi path but still wanted to protect their city joined the academy. Whether the person was a civilian or shinobi, their skills and kekkei genkai were well suited for police work.

The fact that all the members of the police had been Uchiha clan members had bred a feeling of discontentment and inequity in the past. The mixture of non-Uchiha civilians and shinobi would prevent those feelings from ever flourishing again in the future as well as free up talented Uchiha shinobi.

As the Sandaime looked through his crystal ball and watched the new Konoha Military Police members milling around Konoha, his heart was filled with contentment. Though Danzo's abhorrent actions had rocked Konoha to its core, it had also started some much needed changes.

Aside from the changes in the Konoha Military Police, the Hokage's council was more open-minded and unbiased with seven members instead of three. Homura and Koharu had both resigned so the Hokage had chosen Aburame Shibi, Yamanaka Inoichi, and Maruboshi Kosuke for the three empty slots of the council.

Though Kosuke was a genin in rank, he had been a shinobi for over fifty years and had fought alongside the Sannin and Hatake Sakumo. With his wealth of experience and knowledge combined with his loyalty and calm personality, he was a perfect fit for an advisor.

The other four positions were filled by the jonin commander Nara Shikaku, the ANBU commander, the head of the hospital who was a kunoichi named Yoshida Chihiro, and Uchiha Fugaku who was the head of the military police.

While everything was calm in Konoha, the same could not be said about their relations with outside nations. As Hiruzen had predicted, several countries saw Danzo's treasonous actions and the Uchiha massacre as a sign of weakness.

Iwa and Kumo in particular had decided to test Konoha's borders. Iwa was still recovering from the Yellow Flash wiping out a large percentage of its shinobi force so Iwa had been easy dissuade. However, Kumo was not.

Four months after the Uchiha massacre, reports of Kumo fortifying their defenses and stockpiling shinobi goods such as projectile weapons, explosive tags, soldier pills, and other items began to trickle back to Konoha through Jiraiya's expansive spy network. The reports were substantiated by several spies they had placed within Kumo as well.

While that wasn't a sure sign of preparation for war, a month ago after the reports of Kumo fortifying itself an ANBU squad had found a scouting group of Kumo ninjas deep in the land of fire. The fact that they had sent a group skilled enough to avoid detection from the border patrols and make it a third of the way from the border towards Konoha was worrying to the Sandaime.

The Raikage had denounced the group of ninja as missing nin but their fortifications, the group of scouts, and how much they coveted Konoha's kekkei genkais all pointed to the fact that they could be looking to take advantage of Konoha's perceived weakness and go to war.

Konoha didn't have an alliance with the two countries, Land of Hot Water and the Land of Frost, that were a physical buffer between Kumo and Konoha. Even if they did, the Land of Hot Water no longer had a shinobi village and the Land of Frost only had a small hidden village, Shimogakure.

Both would be unable to stand against the might of Kumogakure which meant that Kumo would be able to make bases directly outside of the borders of the Land of Fire should they choose to go to war.

While the citizens of Konoha disliked Kumo as a whole after the whole Hyuga affair, it would be a long and costly war. Konoha had been decimated by the Kyuubi attack eight years ago while Kumo was the strongest of all the five great shinobi countries in regards to their economic strength and second strongest in terms of number of shinobi.

The only hidden village to surpass them in number of shinobi was Iwa and should Iwa choose to align themselves with Kumo, it would be a disaster for Konoha. Konoha's ally, Suna, hated Iwa with a vengeance but over the years the Land of Wind's daimyo had begun outsourcing missions to Konoha instead after the conclusion of the Third Shinobi World War. He had been greatly impressed by the prowess of Konoha shinobis during the wars.

Although Hiruzen had tried to dissuade the daimyo and redirect the missions to Suna, the daimyo had continued to send missions their way and Konoha was not in a position to refuse income from missions. The Kyuubi attack had destroyed a large portion of Konoha's ninja force and much of Konoha's infrastructure. The subsequent repairs had vastly depleted the treasury.

Konoha and Suna still had an alliance but Hiruzen did not wish to rely on possibly shaky alliance and a struggling country that may or may not be able assist them even if they wished to.

He needed to overwhelm and intimidate Kumo with a non-aggressive show of strength to dissuade them from launching an attack and he knew exactly what to use to do so. Hiruzen glanced once more at the heartwarming sight of various non-Uchiha shinobi and civilians clothed in the Konoha Military Police uniforms before he put away his crystal ball and made his way to the mission assignment room.

In the mission assignment room, Hiruzen turned towards the bright and talented shinobi he had assembled there today. "You are all familiar with the current situation with Kumo. Though many Konoha citizens despise Kumo for their past actions against Konoha, it is not in Konoha's best interest to enter into another war of attrition with Kumo. Many of you were young children during the Third Shinobi World War but some of you were genin and participated in the war efforts and know exactly what I mean. So I have called you all here to participate in the upcoming Jonin exams in Kumo. I want you to show Kumo that Konoha is not a force to be trifled with. The Kumo ninja may be aiming to seriously injure or kill you. However, try not kill any Kumo shinobi during the exams. All of you are here today because you are excellent shinobi and I have confidence in your abilities to easily defeat your competition without resorting to lethal measures. The purpose of your participation in the exam is to intimidate them with your strength not incite them by your actions. For those of you that wish to decline, I understand. However, keep in mind that this will be an excellent chance to deter Kumo as you make your decisions. You must make your decision in the next month. Those of you that wish to participate, meet at the eastern gate at 8am sharp on February 25th."

Misaki glanced around the mission assignment room as the Hokage continued to give pertinent information. She only recognized a few people out of the twelve potential examinees. Unsurprisingly Shisui and Itachi were amongst the shinobi asked to participate in the upcoming Jonin exams in Kumo. There were few shinobi that were more qualified for the upcoming exams than those two.

Aside from those two, the only other two people she recognized in the room were Taka and Muta. It was strange seeing Muta in regular shinobi clothes sans his mantis mask. Despite being ANBU squad mates, Misaki could count the number of times she had actually seen Muta's face on her two hands. Catching Taka's eyes, Misaki gave him a friendly nod before continuing her examination of the room.

It wasn't surprising that Masashi was not among the shinobis asked. Even though he was skilled enough to make jonin as a main house Hyuga member, the chances of him being sent to Kumo for any reason were zero.

As she continued her perusal of the room, Misaki noticed there were two other kunoichi around Kakashi-taicho and Tenzo-sempai's age in the room. They both looked around their late teens or early twenties. One had the coloring of an Uchiha with fair skin and jet black, curly hair but her eyes appeared to be naturally red as Misaki doubted the kunoichi would have sharingan active during a meeting. The other had purple hair in a short, fanned ponytail with light brown eyes.

After the Hokage dismissed them, Misaki caught Itachi and Shisui on their way out. As they walked towards the general vicinity of the Uchiha compound Shisui asked, "Misaki-chan, are you going to take the jonin exams?"

"To be honest, I have to think about it and weigh the pros and cons. Not only will I be missing Haku's academy graduation in March if I do chose to go but with the way things are with Kumo going to Kumo and attending the exam itself could be dangerous. What about you guys?"

"Going to Kumo, itself, won't be that dangerous. The five great shinobi countries have a pact that the chunin and jonin exams are exempt from politics. No country has attacked during an exam nor has any examinees been attacked since the agreement was made fifteen years ago after genin got caught in the crosshairs between Mizu shinobi and the rebels. The exams itself may be dangerous but I'm planning on going." Shisui responded firmly.

"So long as my parents agree, I will be going as well." Itachi chimed in as they reached the gate to the compound.

Waving goodbye to Itachi and Shisui, Misaki made her way to the redwood overlooking the Naka River that aside from being the place that she and Itachi would hangout had become the spot she mused over tough decisions over the years. While she walked there, she mused she didn't even know why she bothered asking Itachi. With the exam as a possible way to deter Kumo from starting anything with Konoha, there was no way Itachi would choose to not participate. She sat on her branch overlooking the entire city of Konoha as she had a few hours to kill before Haku would be done with the Academy.

At the same time across town at the academy, the lunch bell rang and Haku rushed out of the classroom alongside his other classmates. As a third year student, he no longer had the same lunch time as Naruto but he wasn't worried as Kiba had started the academy this past spring. When Haku had introduced him to Naruto, they had bonded and become friends through their mutual love of mischief. A fact that Tsume-oba and Hana-nee had learned to their chagrin hearing rumors and reports of a blonde kid and an Inuzuka with his puppy racing through the streets cackling with glee after completing successful pranks.

While Haku made his way to where Haruhito and Satomi were seated with their bento, he thought about the stunned look on Tsume-oba's face when she had stepped in an elaborate prank meant for Shogo. Then he shivered as he remembered the expression that graced her face during the subsequent punishment she doled out to Kiba and Naruto who had been waiting to see Shogo's reaction. Of course, Tsume-oba had dodged the prank but the unholy glee that lit her face as she made Naruto and Kiba clean out all of the Inuzuka kennels had terrified Haku.

It made him glad that he had decided not to take part in that prank. That was not to say that Haku didn't participate in his fair share of their antics but unlike the two aforementioned boys he knew the value of being stealthy.

As he listened to Haruhito and Satomi talk about yesterday's exam on the principals of the three main shinobi arts, he remembered the very first time he had committed a prank with Naruto during his second year of the academy. They had been caught by the Konoha Military Police, even worse by a police officer that had known Misaki-nee. He had been so scared that Misaki-nee would be angry at him or disappointed with him for causing trouble but to his surprise she hadn't been either.

Instead, she had cautioned him to make sure that no one ever got hurt by his pranks before slyly grinning as she had taught him various ways to evade capture and how to plan out the best escape routes for the future. Misaki-nee had drilled the value of being meticulous and sneaky into his head. The true hallmark of an excellent prankster was not just having a successful, elaborate prank but being crafty enough to not get caught or if he was caught to have no evidence linking him to the prank. With no evidence, there would be no proof of wrongdoing on his part and according to Misaki-nee if he was persuasive enough, nine times out of ten he would be able to get off scot free.

According to Misaki-nee, two of the best pranksters she had known had been able to avoid being caught for any of their pranks solely through guile and lack of evidence. They were so skilled that they had even caught her in multiple pranks. Haku had expressed awe that the pranksters had been good enough to even catch Misaki-nee in their pranks. When he asked her how long ago it was and if he knew the pranksters, Misaki-nee's expression had briefly shuttered as she mused that it was so long ago that it seemed like a lifetime ago and that he wouldn't know them. She explained that they had been two twins that had left the village before Haku was old enough to have remembered them.

Then she had shown him how to execute a few devious time-release traps that would work as excellent pranks. Misaki-nee had even begun giving him lessons in the best way to use his facial expressions to illustrate innocence and how to use his words to complete the façade and persuade people of his innocence.

Misaki-nee's lessons on subterfuge were awesome and in-depth. Haku hadn't even realized that certain words or actions were far more convincing than others. Nor had he realized how certain body language expressed more than words. Tilting his face downward a fraction and looking up at the corner of his eyes while protesting his guilt was ineffectual if he was shifting restlessly or couldn't look the person in the eye. There were so many different body language cues that he hadn't even realized were clues.

Haku had always known that Misaki-nee was really smart and an awesome nee-chan but this event solidified how awesome she was in his mind. Not only was she book-smart but she was an expert in reading people as well. According to her, as long as no one got hurt by his pranks it was excellent trapping, tactics, evasion, and stealth training. He was musing about all the different pranks he, Naruto, and Kiba had pulled before he was pulled out of his thoughts by Haruhito asking, "Haku? Did you hear me?"

"Sorry, I was thinking about something. What did you ask me Haruhito?"

"I was just asking how you and Satomi how you guys thought you did on yesterday's exam. I didn't study for it at all… I think I bombed the test. I totally forgot that we had an exam until I got to school yesterday." Haruhito responded despondently as he mussed his hair and his baby blue eyes clouded over in chagrin.

As Haku responded that he thought he did relatively well, Satomi teased, "You're such a blonde Haruhito. Only you would forget that we had a cumulative exam. How did you forget when sensei reminded us before the weekend anyways?"

"Mouuuu, how could you say that? Don't you know what day Friday was? It was the release of the first Pottu Haru movie! I waited in line for hours on Friday night with my cousin Ino-chan, Inoichi-ojisan, and Nanao-obasan to watch the first Pottu Haru movie. It was so good that after watching it, I had to read the books. Friday night when I got home, I started reading the first book. I continued reading it Saturday morning and stayed up until the sun rose on Sunday morning reading it. I spent the weekend finishing the first book… I totally forgot about the test we had until Monday morning when I got to school…" Haruhito cried out theatrically swinging his arms around wildly.

"Ah… I actually watched the movie during its premiere on Thursday. Haku got me two tickets to the premiere for Christmas. By the way, thanks again Haku. My little brother, Akio, and I both loved the movie." Satomi said smugly.

"Hakuuuu! Am I not your friend too? How did you get tickets and why didn't you share the wealth!?" Haruhito said as he upended his empty bento box in the process of grabbing onto Haku's shoulders.

"Sorry, Haruhito. I didn't even know you read or liked the series. My sister, Misaki-nee, is friends with the editor of the books so she got a few tickets to the premiere. I knew that Satomi and Akio both really liked the series so I gave them the two extra tickets."

Haruhito hung his head as he loudly lamented how unlucky he was and Satomi snickered at his theatrics.

Watching his two best friends' antics brought a warm smile to Haku's face. It was nice to see Satomi back to her normal self. During the Uchiha massacre six months ago, Satomi had lost both of her parents. Right now she and her younger brother were living with her older cousin, Ryoko. She had been devastated by the loss of both of her parents and had missed a few weeks of schools. Haku and Haruhito had tried their best to cheer Satomi up and help her move past her grief but Haku knew that the pain of losing one's parents wasn't something that was easily overcome.

Haku had known that Satomi was a huge fan of the Pottu Haru series so he had asked Misaki-nee to sign one of the limited special first editions of the third book for Satomi's birthday in October. He knew that Misaki-nee didn't want anyone to know she wrote the book so Haku generally avoided asking for things like that but he knew that Misaki-nee would understand.

He didn't know what Misaki-nee had wrote in the first edition he had gifted Satomi but when Satomi had read what was written, she had burst into tears and hugged Haku tightly. As she was hugging Haku, she had asked, "Haku, how did you get one of the limited special first editions? They've been sold out since the first few days after the book released. Aside from that how did you even get Ryuuka-sensei to write a personalized note and sign it? No one even knows who she is. She's notorious for her wish to remain anonymous."

Satomi had thanked Haku profusely as he explained that his sister knew the publisher and he had asked Misaki-nee to reach out and see if the author would be willing to sign the book for Satomi. He didn't know that the author would write a personalized note as well.

As the lunch bell rang and they repacked their bento, Haku assured Haruhito that if he could he would get him tickets to the premiere of the next movie. Haruhito happily slung his arms around both Satomi and Haku's shoulders as they made their way back to class.

A few hours later Haku grinned widely as he received yesterday's exam back from Akira-sensei at the end of the school day. He gotten a hundred percent on his test; he couldn't wait to show Misaki-nee. As he was now a third year academy student, he no longer had Hakka-sensei as his sensei like he had had the first two years of the academy.

The way that the academy was run, a student started the academy with a sensei who usually continued to teach them until the end of their second year. Sometimes the first year student would be put into a different sensei's second year class. They would then receive a different sensei for their third year that would be their sensei until they graduated.

There were a total of eight academy senseis for the two lower years and six for the upper two years. During the school year there were usually four first year classes, four second year classes, two to three third year classes, and two graduating classes. Between the second and third year as well as the third and fourth year, a lot of academy students dropped from the program.

As he exited the academy, he spotted Naruto and waved at him. As a third year student, he no longer had lunch with Naruto but they still hung out after school. Unfortunately, Naruto had not gotten Hakka-sensei as his first and second year sensei. Haku didn't know the other first and second year academy senseis very well as he had Hakka-sensei but according to Naruto the sensei he received, Jin-sensei, was very mean. He never answered any of the questions Naruto tried to ask in class, always picked Naruto to answer the most difficult questions, and ridiculed him if he answered wrongly.

Chatting with Naruto as he looked around for Misaki-nee, Haku thought about how he had been disturbed that a sensei would treat a student like that and wanted to tell Misaki-nee about it to see if she could talk to Jin-sensei for Naruto when Naruto had mentioned it to him during the first months of his first year. But when he had asked Naruto, his eyes had grown wide with alarm before he had rubbed the back of his head sheepishly and hastily assured Haku that it was fine. He also asked Haku to not talk to Misaki about it.

Haku was confused by Naruto's reaction but nonetheless promised Naruto that he wouldn't mention it to his sister, a promise that he had kept for the past year and a half. In lieu of telling Misaki-nee, Haku tried to help Naruto with his coursework the best that he could. There was only a month left in the academy school year and all of the upper division senseis were fairly reasonable and nice so Naruto would be fine during his third year. Haku knew most of the upper division senseis relatively well from over the course of the past year.

During the third and fourth years, the students had one main "homeroom" teacher who taught them the majority of their academic subjects. However, the other five senseis rotated and taught different subjects. He had his homeroom sensei, Akira-sensei, for taijutsu. Rukia-sensei taught not only the kunoichi class but also genjutsu. One of the newer upper division senseis, a kind but stern sensei named Iruka-sensei, taught his class about trapping and tactics. Another of the newer senseis, Mizuki-sensei, taught ninjutsu and taught one of the other third year classes' taijutsu.

Spotting Misaki-nee, Haku said his goodbyes to Naruto and Haruhito as he made his way towards her. She gave him a one-armed hug before they made their way towards training ground 20. Since the Uchiha Massacre six month ago, Misaki-neechan had begun to have more free time, which she used to train Haku and hang out with him in general. During the year prior to that, she had been so busy that Gai-sensei had mostly taken over his taijutsu training.

Haku had a sneaking suspicion that Misaki-neechan had been among the shinobi that had been tasked to bring down the traitor, Danzo. But he knew that she wouldn't be able to tell him even if she was so he had never bothered asking her.

Either way, he was glad that Misaki-nee had more time to spend with him and seemed a lot less tired all the time. Though she had tried to hide it from him, he could tell. One of the days she had been free and able to read him a bedtime story, she had even fallen asleep while sitting on his bed reading to him.

After they warmed up and Haku ran through the katas that Misaki-nee and Gai-sensei had taught him, they sat on the warm grass enjoying the snack of onigiri and mochi that Misaki had made. As Haku was eating his final onigiri Misaki-nee said, "Haku, there is an upcoming jonin exam in Kumo. Hokage-sama has recommended that I participate in the upcoming exam. However, if I do so I will miss your graduation but…"

"But it will help with the Kumo situation, right Misaki-nee?" Haku added. Though outwardly Misaki-neechan showed no reaction, Haku could tell she was surprised by his statement.

"Haku, how did you know about that and why would you think that?"

"I overheard a few shinobi talking about the increasing amount of squads sent to do border patrol on Konoha's northeast border. Also several academy classmates of mine are not continuing on to the next year. My friend from civilian elementary school, Usagi-chan, told me that she got into a huge fight with her parents regarding attending the academy next year. They wanted her to drop from the shinobi program entirely. The only country big enough to cause trouble in that direction is Kumo and for the past several years few Konoha shinobi have gone to an exam held in Kumo and vice versa… so for Hokage-sama to recommend people to go it has to do something with that, right?"

"You are right. Going to Kumo for the exams might help with the whole situation. There is no guarantee though." Misaki responded as pride in Haku's deductive skills blossomed within her.

"Well if it helps, then do what you got to do neechan! Besides this one isn't even a major graduation. I always have my actual graduation from the academy next year."

Misaki ruffled Haku's hair fondly until it stuck up in different angles as he pouted at her actions and tried to get his hair back in some semblance of order. "Nee-chan! I'm too old for you to mess up my hair!"

Misaki smirked. "Hate to break it to you but as long as you're my otouto, you'll never be too old for me to mess with your hair. You could be eighty and I would still ruffle your hair when I felt like it. It fills me with pride that I have such a mature and intelligent otouto. I'm going to think about my decision more before I make my final decision but I'm glad to know that you're okay with it."

"Mmm… Happy enough that you'll make tonkatsu for dinner?" Haku said as he slyly glanced at Misaki from the corner of his eyes.

Misaki laughed and ruffled Haku's hair again before saying, "Yes you rascal, I'll get the ingredients for tonkatsu for dinner. If you want you can invite some of your friends over as well."

Haku cheered at Misaki's statement before flattening his hair down again and racing off to see if any of his friends were free.

* * *

A month later on February 25th, Misaki joined the rest of the assortment of ninjas waiting for the jonin commander at the gate. Of the twelve that were at the Hokage's meeting four weeks ago, eight of the shinobi had decided to participate in the jonin exams. Muta, Taka, Itachi, Shisui, a shinobi, and the two kunoichi that Misaki had seen in the meeting had decided to go. The two kunoichi and the shinobi introduced themselves as Mitarashi Anko, Yuhi Kurenai, and Hayate Gekko respectively. As she was getting to know the shinobi and kunoichis that would be participating in the exam with her, Misaki heard someone walking towards them call out her name.

"Misaki-chan! Over here! I hadn't realized that you, Itachi-kun, and Shisui-kun had been selected to go to the jonin exams." Natsumi chirped out happily before continuing, "When I heard that Taka had decided to participate in the Kumo exams, I volunteered to be part of the squad of medics accompanying the group of jonin examinees. This is my sempai Kudo Tsubaki."

Misaki introduced herself to the dark eyed kunoichi that had a long braid of black hair with jaw length bangs framing either side of her face. Due to Natsumi's busyness at the hospital and Misaki's own busyness, she hadn't seen Natsumi since before the New Year. As she was catching up with Natsumi, Shikaku-sama arrived.

With the last member of their group here, they took off for Kumo. Aside from Shikaku-sama, Konoha was sending the rest of the infamous Ino-Shika-Cho team, a team of four medics, the eight examinees, and a full squad of nine ANBU. Seeing several familiar masks such as Hound-taicho and cat-sempai put Misaki at ease. Between the jonin commander and the twenty three talented shinobi, they should be able to handle whatever Kumo threw at them.

Besides it was highly doubtful that Kumo would breach the agreement between the Five Great Elemental countries regarding the neutrality of promotional exams. If they did, many countries would choose to avoid their exams in the future as people avoided the exams held in Mist. Exams were not only a chance to show off the prowess of their candidates but also a huge tourist attraction that drew in a lot of income for the hosting country.

Later as they made camp for the night and Misaki settled down to sleep until her watch, she withdrew the charm made out of Haku's ice from her side ninja pouch. He had school this morning so he hadn't been able to see her off. They had said their goodbyes the night before.

During her experimentation with fuinjutsu, she had created a stasis seal capable of putting the ice created from her kekkei genkai into stasis. Once the stasis seal was sealed on the ice, the ice no longer took any chakra from the user to maintain. While the stasis seal still needed a few more tweaks before it was usable in battle or for medical purposes, it enabled Misaki to make a good luck charm out of Haku's ice and metal chain as well as a charm for Haku from her ice. Her charm was shaped like a flower blossom and Haku's charm was in the shape of a snowflake.

She had taken the concept from Hermione's DA coins and created a seal that she also placed on each that connected the two charms. During her years as an unspeakable, she had crafted a runic version of the spell Hermione had used. The seal was more rudimentary than Hermione's DA coins and the runic array she had created but it was a start. The further she got into her fuinjutsu studies the more she would be able to use her mastery of runes to augment pre-existing seals and create new seals.

Currently, it couldn't transfer messages but if either charm holder pushed chakra into their charm it would cause the other's charm to glow softly. Her charm was keyed to only her chakra and Haku's was keyed to his. As long as they both had their charms, no matter how far either of them were from each other they would be able to verify the other's wellbeing.

Despite being confident in her skills and the fact that Kumo wouldn't breach the pact regarding the exams, it was a little extra something that brought comfort to Misaki and something that could hopefully serve as reassurance to Haku as well.

* * *

P.S. Tonkatsu is a japanese style breaded pork cutlet that is kind of similar to country fried steak


End file.
